Levante 3 Athletic 0: League campaign ends in a whimper
By: Jack | May 13th, 2012
Athletic finish 10th.
With league form sacrificed for the two cup runs, our final position wasn’t going to matter much this season but the defeat is still disappointing. Since that memorable night against Sporting we’ve failed to win or even score and only avoided defeat once in five games.
Athletic started today’s game at Levante okay, a close and quite open first half saw both sides created chances but neither truly tested the opposition keepers. Just before half-time though Gorka made a rash decision to come out and was lobbed by Abdelkader Ghezzal.
Other results were still in Athletic’s favour though and comeback would seal 6th place. Bielsa threw on Llorente and Javi Martínez and half-time, who were both rested from the start, but little changed.
The hosts missed a great chance to double their lead but soon got their second midway through the second half. Ghezzal again got himself on the scoresheet after some slack defending let Barkero pick out the forward.
The victory – and Levante’s unlikely place in Europe – was confirmed in the dying moments. Amorebieta handled in the box and former Champions League finalist Javier Farinós tucked in the penalty.
This performance, and our recent form, is hardly ideal preparation for the Copa del Rey final in two weeks time but that is a one-off match and will be decided by what happens on the day. Qualifying through the cup as opposed to the league means starting in an earlier round, but if we are hoping for another cup run it shouldn’t be something we are scared of. (Plus, it didn’t do Atléti much harm…)
Meanwhile in La Liga, late goals against Villarreal and for Rayo saw the Yellow Submarine relegated. Clemente’s Sporting also went down with Zaragoza (who seemingly looked doomed a month ago) completing an incredible escape. Another ex-boss, Jokin Caparros, saw his Mallorca side miss out on a European place after a 4-1 defeat in the Bernabeu.
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Comments
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There are obviously mitigating circumstances here, with Levante going for Europe and Athletic deflated after the emotions of Wednesday, but that was really poor, again, and the players really need to get their heads out their backsides now. We still have a cup final to play, and if the same attitude is shown against Barcelona we will get humiliated. The players and the coach can take an immense amount of credit for the events of this season but there is still a great chance to finally get a trophy for the amazing fans, and unfortunately when the going gets tough recently there has been a tiredness and a lack of invention.
The one thing we can say about the final is that Barca are not going to do what Levante, Atleti and others recently have done which is sit deep and force Athletic to create the space and beat them with skill, then when it doesn’t come off or our guys are running out of steam they hit us on the break. Our defence isn’t good enough to stifle Barcelona (whose is) so we will have to recharge the batteries, maybe think of some new creative outlets and battle them at their own game. They are not impregnable, so let’s go for it and it should be a good final.
Finally, good for Levante to get a reward for their great season. A shame to see Villarreal down, it was always a tough fixture. The other smaller club from the Valencia region deserves respect and credit for the way they built up the squad, albeit with a lot of South Americans but those were some talented players, and (as far as I know) there was a degree of outside investment and gradual improvement rather than the crazy obligarchs of the Premiership and lately Malaga, gutted they got that 4th place. Athletic’s next year perhaps….
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