Two goals from Iñaki Williams and Alex Berenguer, the first to open the scoring and the second to unbalance the clash after Jorgen Strand Larsen’s equalizer for Celta, returned this Saturday to Athletic Club to the European area of the table, to one seventh place which is the great objective of Ernesto Valverde’s men for this final of the league championship.
Those two goals, a header from the international for Ghana and a beautiful individual move from Navarre, reflected the Athletic’s superiority over a Celta who remains concerned about their not too much advantage over descent, which will be four or five points when the day ends, with three days still to play.
with visitors without Quotation marks and the locals without their famous central defenders, Yeray and Iñigo Martínez, the clash soon turned to the local team, who opened the scoring in the 5th minute. It was with a header from the older Williams, moving ahead of his Ghana teammate Aidoo, to a measured cross to the penalty spot from De Marcos.
The ‘lions’ continued to insist, asking for a penalty in a cast down Muniain’s bottom line. It was not the only time that the rojiblancos called for a maximum foul, since, much later in the first half, they also requested it in a Berenguer cross that clearly hit Oscar Rodríguez’s hand. Neither of them was worthy of sanction for Melero López.
Celta responded with a counter that De Marcos aborted, crossing in front of Strand Larsen when the Norwegian was preparing to shoot with many options against Simón.
A center-shot from Berenguer and a ‘slalom’ from Gabri Veiga kept the give and take between the two teams. Although with more arrivals and more danger Athletic.
Although the first save of the afternoon had to be made by Unai Simón, clearing a strong shot from distance from the talented sky-blue youth squad from Porriño for a corner.
The second, and even better, was starred by Iván Villar. Which implausibly cleared another header, this time from Yuri, almost as impossible to stop as the one from Williams’s goal.
That action on the edge of halftime put an end to the final siege of Athletic’s first half, with outstanding actions by Sancet and Iñaki Williams.
Two substitutions for Celta at halftime, together with the first half of the injured Fran Beltrán, confirmed the best first half for Bilbao.
The second half was opened by a play by rogues in an out of bounds by Muniain and Williams, who caught almost all of Celta asleep but also all their teammates.
The changes began to pay off for Celta, since in a play between De la Torre and Miguel Rodríguez, who was the one who crossed the Norwegian, Strand Larsen equalized by placing a header outside Simón’s chances.
Celta threatened to make it 1-2, but Mingueza did not find the final pass in a very well-carried counterattack by Carles Pérez.
They were the best visiting minutes, but the one who scored again was Athletic in a double play by Berenguer. First to get the sky-blues into their area and then to decide with a cross shot to the far post after getting rid of Mingueza and De la Torre.
Celta tried to respond with two long shots from Javi Galán and Gabri Veiga from afar, but the closest one was about to score in a similar action was Berenguer, who smashed a great shot from the front into the crossbar.
And Athletic was still able to score the third again, but Vesga, already in the minute 92, a free header went unbelievably high at the far post from a center on a strategic play by Zarraga.
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