Eibar pick up worthy point in 1-1 draw with Athletic
Kike García once again struck the equalising goal
Eibar and Athletic played out a 1-1 stalemate in their La Liga Matchday 21 encounter. The Armeros again displayed all of their grit and determination to remain in the game throughout and hauled themselves level after having fallen behind, with Kike García on hand to restore parity when he rifled home from inside the area.
The two sides served up an even opening 45 minutes in which neither team managed to really get on top, although Eibar it was who were first to threaten. There were barely two minutes on the clock when Fabián Orellana almost caught Iago Herrerín out with a lobbed effort. The Armeros were having real joy down both flanks but were failing to carve out any clear-cut chances.
With half an hour played, Athletic began to enjoy their best spell and fashioned their clearest openings, which came in the form of two headed efforts from inside the box. However, Xabier Etxeita and later Aritz Aduriz both failed to hit the target. The teams went in goalless at the interval.
After the restart, it looked very much as if the game was set to follow a similar script. However, unfortunately for the visitors, with 50 minutes played, Athletic forged ahead when Aduriz nodded home an Iñaki Williams cross from the right by-line. Eibar now had it all to do, but their best spell of the game was still to come.
Following the introduction of Charles on the hour mark, the Armeros started to dominate play and boss possession. The visitors were zipping the ball from flank to flank and began to pose a threat on the hosts' goal. Pape Diop had a fine chance to level terms but contrived to send his effort over the bar.
Just minutes later, however, Kike García made no mistake from point-blank range. Charles brought a raking pass under his spell before finding Kike, who smashed the ball past Herrerín via a deflection off a home defender. From that point on, Eibar continued to pour forward and were making constant inroads into the hosts' area.
In the closing stages, the Armeros completely laid siege to the Athletic box and Anaitz Arbilla came closest to finding a winner in the dying minutes, but his rasping drive from the edge of the area whistled narrowly wide of the upright. No further goals were forthcoming as Eibar put another point on the board, which serves to take them a step closer to achieving the club's target.