Eibar put up a good fight but slip to 2-0 home defeat against Barcelona
The Armeros produced a good display but Barça's quality ultimately shone through
Eibar this evening succumbed to defeat against FC Barcelona in the sides' LaLiga Matchday 24 clash. José Luis Mendilibar's charges came off second best against the league leaders despite dominating for several spells of the game. However, a lack of clinicalness in and around the visitors' box, coupled with Los Culés' quality put paid to the Armeros' chances of taking anything from the game.
The hosts made a high-octane start, applying a high press on the Barcelona defence. With just a few minutes on the clock, Cote spurned a gilt-edged chance inside the area, when he contrived to head the ball over the bar. Shortly afterwards, Fabián Orrellana and Kike García both had chances to put Eibar into the ascendancy, only to be denied by Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen.
Despite Eibar's bright start, it didn't take long for Barça to respond and in what was virtually their first foray on goal, the visitors took the lead. Luis Suárez found himself clean through on goal and rounded Marko Dmitrović before slipping the ball into the empty net. Although they were now trailing, Eibar kept going and continued to hound the opposition as they sought to play the ball out from the back. Orellana came close to levelling matters just minutes later, but his effort from outside the box shaved the crossbar on its way over.
After the restart, the Armeros came out looking determined and continued to pose Barcelona problems. The game was again being played out in the visitors' half and it appeared as if it was simply a matter of time before Eibar would haul themselves level. Takashi Inui carved out a great chance but contrived to send his effort wide of the upright.
A few minutes later, came the incident which changed the whole complexion of the contest as Orellana received his marching orders after being shown a second yellow and the Armeros' numerical disadvantage began to tell as Barcelona made the most of their extra man to go on and dominate proceedings. Eibar, however, kept plugging away.
It wasn't long before the visitors made their numerical superiority count as Jordi Alba struck the visitors' second of the game in the dying stages. Dmitrović blocked Lionel Messi's initial effort, only for the ball to fall out as far as the Catalan defender, who slotted home to round off the scoring and rubber-stamp a 2-0 away win.