SD Eibar claim victory in their opening pre-season friendly

Jose Luis Mendilibar's charges faced stifling heat as they showcased what they had accomplished in just one week of pre-season training on a pitch which was in rather poor condition. The Armeros dominated a slow-paced encounter in which the visitors stamped their authority on proceedings from the first whistle. With 18 minutes on the clock and following a poor clearance from the hosts' goalkeeper, Bebé collected a pass from Pere Milla but was unable to get his shot away, but Milla was on hand to fire home what turned out to be the only goal of the game. For the start of the second period, Mendilibar made eleven changes to hand the rest of the travelling party some playing time.

The Eibar coach called upon 14 of the 19 players available to him for the trip to Irún. Jota is out injured after confirmation that he has suffered a fracture in the proximal phalanx of the fifth toe in his left foot, an injury which could possibly rule him out for the next three weeks.

At the end of the game, the club's director of football, Fran Garagarza, spoke to SD Eibar TV to offer his assessment of the action at Irún's Stadium Gal: "It was a game that was low in intensity. The good news is that we haven't picked up any injuries. The heat was also a factor and the team isn't properly up to speed yet. Collectively we didn't perform well".

Garagarza went on to outline the objectives of the next part of the pre-season programme which begins next week and sees Eibar travel abroad: "In the second phase, the level of demands will increase and the approach to our fine-tuning will be different. The way the team work together will be more specific and will be more in line with how the coach intends on playing during the league campaign".