Thursday, November 7, 2024, 8:50 p.m.
| Updated 8:57 p.m.
Athletic had to struggle until they found two magical minutes to come back against the modest but tough Ludogorets, and soar in the Europa League with ten points after four days. One more step to see the dream of being able to be in that long-awaited San Mamés final come true, but a hard-fought victory that should serve as a warning to the Basques. The Brazilian Marcus surprised by overtaking the Bulgarians in the first half, but the lions reacted in time after Valverde’s successful changes. In a flash, Iñaki Williams scored a magnificent oriented control before shooting the goalkeeper and Nico Serrano exhibited the class of unbalancing left-handers.
Typical trap match for Athletic. A minor rival, which had barely scored a point without scoring in three games, a remote, cold and unknown destination like Razgrad, with only 32,000 inhabitants and 30% of them Turkish, and a charming but small field. The typical thing to appear with overconfidence and put one gear less into the game than the motivated enemy, a melting pot of eight nationalities in the starting eleven.
Ludogorets
Padt, Witry (Gropper, min. 85), Verdon, Almeida, Son, Yordanov (Chochew, min. 85), Rwan Cruz, Duarte, Marcus (Rusev, min. 74), Rick y Duah.
1
–
2
Athletic
Agirrezabala, Gorosabel (De Marcos, min. 56), Vivian, Paredes, Yuri, Ruiz de Galarreta (Unai Gómez, min. 68), Prados (Vesga, min. 56), Iñaki Williams, Berenguer, Nico Williams (Herrera min. 84) and Djaló (Nico Serrano, min. 56).
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Goals
1-0: min. 20, Marcus. 1-1: min. 73, Iñaki Williams. 1-2: min. 74, Nico Serrano. -
Arbitrator
Anastasios Papapetrou (Greece). Yellow cards to Yuri, Rick, Vivian, Vesga, Rusev, Nico Serrano and Rwan Cruz. -
incidences
Match of the fourth day of the Europa League played at the Ludogorets Arena with the presence of about 500 red and white fans.
Valverde, perfectly aware of what it means to compete for Europe, held nothing back. The same team that should have scored but tied against Betis, except for Gorosabel and Berenguer instead of Óscar de Marcos and Sancet, slightly affected. At the beginning, the Biscayans warned Padt, a Dutch goalkeeper who is quite agile for how heavy he seems, a couple of times.
Iñaki Williams missed two shots at the far post and, however, the Bulgarians took advantage of their first chance. Ball rejected after a corner kick and tremendous shot by Brazilian Marcus. The goal was annulled in the first instance due to a positional offside but the VAR corrected the Greek braid because Iñaki’s backheel broke the offside position.
The goal hurt Athletic, unable to overcome a very organized team in the first act, with close lines, which did not allow the lions to run with space. It could have been even worse, since in the end Ludogorets enjoyed a textbook counterattack after a serious loss by Gorosabel, but Marcus shot too cross.
The second half didn’t start too well either. Luckily Agirrezabala was attentive to abort an action in which Vivian fell asleep and they ate her toast. Valverde did not wait long to make a triple change, one per line. Yuri tested the goalkeeper, but it was the Swiss Duah who came close to second on a counterattack. Luckily, he did not see a better placed companion. Txingurri was taken by demons.
The Extremaduran coach also looked for more muscle and bite with Unai Gómez and the changes worked for him. The tie came, after a superb oriented control by Iñaki Williams, and immediately the second, the work of Nico Serrano, fantastic with a changed leg. The tangana was left over near the end after an ugly tackle by Serrano himself and a feint with a header from Rwan. Athletic soars in the second continental competition.
