#3 Athletic Bilbao fail to reignite the fire
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Ernesto Valverde’s men were confident of producing a shocker, certainly after what they produced at the San Mames with 9 men to overcome Barcelona. But they had to also deal with some key misses in what would have also been influential in predicting the outcome.
Itturaspe’s absence left a void in midfield, while Raul Garcia’s effectual and robust threat up front was always going to be a big miss. On the other hand, Valverde’s tactics also flopped. His decision to rest their evergreen forward Aritz Aduriz until the second half for Sabin Merino bore no fruit.
Los Leones were, in fact, fortunate enough to find a reply coming from Enric Sabortiz due to Sergi Roberto’s lack of alertness. But after that moment, there were always on the backfoot and lacked any creative force up front. As the going got tougher, the Rojiblancos found it difficult to bring Iker Muniain later on when the game had already slipped.
