The three points remained in Bilbao, as did the memory of a Slavia Prague team that could have achieved a better result, because it overwhelmed Athletic for much of the match. Compared to Agirrezabala’s seven stops, Kinsky only made one, but Valverde’s men performed a great resistance exercise.
1
Julen Agirrezabala, Dani Vivian, Aitor Paredes, Yuri Berchiche, Óscar De Marcos, Alex Berenguer (Unai Gómez, min. 62), Iñaki Williams, Beñat Prados (Ander Herrera, min. 85), Nico Williams (Oihan Sancet, min. 76 ), Íñigo Ruíz de Galarreta (Mikel Jauregizar, min. 76) and Gorka Guruzeta (Álvaro Djaló, min. 62)
0
Antonín Kinsky, El Hadji Diouf, Jan Boril, David Doudera, David Zima (Stepán Chaloupek, min. 87), Ondrej Zmrzly (Matej Jurásek, min. 62), Oscar Dorley, Simion Michez (Ondrej Lingr, min. 71), Christos Zafeiris (Dominik Pech, min. 87), Lukás Provod and Mojmír Chytil (Tomás Chory, min. 62)
Goals
1-0 min. 32: Nico Williams
Referee Morten Krogh
yellow cards
Daniel Vivian (min. 43), Christos Zafeiris (min. 67), De Marcos (min. 78), Jan Boril (min. 80)
Slavia came out in a rush in San Mamés, with the intention of doing damage in the quickest way. With a dynamic and aggressive game, he managed to take the ball away from Athletic and sow panic in the red and white defensive line, overwhelmed by the wings. Valverde’s team did not leave their field, which was more dedicated to bailing water than rowing. It took him a world to balance the game and adjust the pressure in the midfield. Unable to keep up with those unbridled revolutions of the first quarter of an hour, the Czechs lowered the tension.
San Mamés attended, stunned by Slavia’s push, until the connection between the Williams brothers and Berenguer began to work, again in the midfield. Little by little the game changed its trend and Athletic got closer to the opponent’s area. The prelude to the goal came in an action in which Iñaki Williams was knocked down in the area and the referee awarded a penalty. After a long VAR check, when Nico was already in front of the ball, the Danish Krogh decided to go see him on the screen and pointed out Guruzeta’s previous foul.
But Athletic has dynamite in their boots, and in the next attack, Berenguer gave the ball to Nico, who shot from the edge of the area, the ball hit a defender and confused goalkeeper Kinsky. Although Slavia pushed at the end of the first half, the Bilbao team held on, thanks to Agirrezabala, who kept a clean sheet with a couple of interventions.
In the second half the Czech team redoubled its offensive. The visiting players won almost all the duels and Agirrezabala appeared again to save Athletic, which only Nico Williams gave oxygen in the opposite field. With the changes and a more tired Slavia, the Basque team held on to get the three points.
