Added time prevents Eibar ladies from surprising the leader
The armeros lost 2-1 but the worst news was the injury to Haizea Ribera
The Eibar women’s team was on the verge of springing a surprise at the ground of the unbeaten league leaders, EDF Logroño (19 victories and 2 draws), but a goal in added time left them without any reward.
With all this, the worst news of the game was the knee injury suffered by Haizea Ribera (still to be diagnosed) who had recently returned following another serious knee injury.
At the difficult Pradoviejo ground, the game started with a fright for the gunsmiths, when in the third minute a player from the home side hit the woodwork when by rights she should have scored. From then on the game, with a lot of tactical rigour, became more evenly balanced. In the 28th minute, the forward, Irati Lazkano took advantage of a 50-50 ball to put the gunsmiths ahead 0-1.
The minutes that followed continued in the same vein, and minutes before the break, the armero player Haizea Ribera suffered a new knee injury, the second this season.
Things were unchanged after the restart until the Eibar brought on fresh players in attack and the team from Rioja decided to take a risk and play with three in defence. It was during this stage of the game when Eibar could have put the result beyond doubt, but they let their rival off the hook. First was Ainhoa Alonso, who took on the defence but her shot went over the bar, and the second and clearest chance - a killer pass by Ainhoa Alonso to Irati Lazkano, whose shot brushed past the wrong side of the post.
The Eibar players played on the counter taking advantage of the local sides’ constant attacks, but in the 76th minute the home side hit a long ball behind the Eibar defence, which caused the goalkeeper, Iratxe to hesitate, then collide with a Logroño forward, with the misfortune that the ball ended up in the back of the net.
When it seemed that the match was going to finish in a draw, in the 93rd minute a move down the right by the home side ended in a shot in the corner near the post that Iratxe touched but couldn’t stop.
After this painful defeat, with four games left before the end of the league, Eibar has a cushion of 5 points between them and the relegation zone.
Team list of SD Eibar: Iratxe, Naiara, Alaitz, Olatz, Irune, Melani, Maitane, Ainhoa Larruskain, Haizea Ribera (Ainhoa Alonso, min. 46), Irati (Yaiza, min. 69) and Ane Egaña (Haizea Lomba, min. 57)
Goals: 0-1: Irati, min. 28, 1-1: min. 76. 2-1: min. 93.