Athletic Bilbao down UD Almeria 3-1 to close on European place: La Liga update
Athletic Bilbao beat UD Almeria 3-1 in a La Liga encounter at the Estadio Juegos del Mediterraneo on Monday, April 4. Bilbao move to the fifth position with this win, while Almeria remain bottom placed after the defeat.
The hosts, Almeria, made two changes to their team that lost 1-0 to Sporting Gijon in their last fixture. Skipper Jose Ortiz and Leonardo Ulloa replaced Fabian Vargas and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Henok-Goitom-c16037 in the starting line-up.
On the other hand, Joaquin Caparros made several changes to his team that lost 1-0 to Villarreal recently. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-Llorente-c13671 started upfront in 4-5-1 formation for the hosts.
The hosts, who had very few bright moments throughout the season, witnessed a dazzling start to the game, as they opened the scoring in the 6th minute. Ortiz played a lovely through ball to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pablo-Piatti-c29003, who finished beautifully inside the penalty
area to make it 1-0 for Almeria.
Bilbao came close to an immediate equaliser; after Gaizka Toquero’s powerful shot from outside the box was nicely parried away by goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Diego-Alves-c11071. The game entered in a phase where a lot of rugged challenges were played on each other by both teams.
The visitors dominated the game and their patience paid dividends as they leveled the scoring in the 29th minute. Pablo Orbaiz’s corner was met by a powerful shot from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carlos-Gurpegi-c8451 but Alves made a splendid save and the rebounded effort was
buried into the net from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Iker-Muniain-c16816 to make it 1-1.
Both teams created several scoring chances throughout the game but could not pounce on them. The hosts had 54% of the possession in their first half but they were still careless on many occasions.
The visitors made a substitution at the half-time, as Javi Martinez replaced http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ander-Iturraspe-c5544 in midfield.
The second half witnessed a rollicking start as Bilbao took the lead seven minutes into resumption. Llorente and Toquero played a lovely link-up move before the latter smashed the ball into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-1 for the visitors.
Eight minutes later, Bilbao scored another goal to take the game away from Almeria. Orbaiz skipped past two people before striking a thunderous long range effort into the goal to make it 3-1 for Los Leones.
Almeria’s wastefulness in-front of goal made them pay, as they slumped to their 14th defeat of the season.
Almeria will travel to face http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38605 in their next game on the 9th of April, whereas Athletic Bilbao will host Real Madrid the same day.
Tags: