One year gap in athletics

Athletic ended their competitive year on Monday with a crushing defeat against Espanyol in San Mamés, their fourth game of the league season. Rojiblancos took the lead BerengarHowever, after 6 minutes, the Perico team equalized the score with a wonderful goal of a player. rosemary And at the start of the second half Pere Mila The winning goal was scored after a serious defensive error by a local player. team of Valverde He forced the match late, but could not get the goal that would at least lead to a draw.

After the game, the coach recognized the team’s lack of play and established a comparison between the previous season and the current season. “It’s been a good year, but it’s true that we haven’t had the results we wanted this half-season. We’ve lost a lot of games, our numbers are worse than last year, when we were at the highest level, and this season we’re nowhere near where we were last season. We’ve had our problems and we’ve had injuries, but we have to do better,” he admitted.

The data for the same matches are very clear (25). Last year, 19 players played in the league (which was played until the end of the first round) and 6 in the Europa League, but this time 18 played in the regular tournament, 6 in the Champions League, and 1 from Ourense in the cup competition. The team had a bad result when you look at the numbers. At this time last year, the Lions had added 15 wins in all competitions (10 in the league and five in the Second Continent Tournament), but now have only nine wins (7+1+1 in the cup). Although the draw record was higher than the current one (7/4), the number of losses was very large and was a complete blow. Last season they played just three games (two away to Barça and Girona, and one at home against Atlético), now they have played 12, nine in the league (four against San Mamés, five away) and three in the Champions League.

The team’s ranking in the two tournaments it participated in at the end of 2024 is also very important. The Bilbao team is 4th in the league with 36 points, two behind third-place Barça, and second in the UEL with leaders Lazio on 16 points. They currently sit in 8th place in the domestic tournament with 23, occupying 6th (Betis) and 5th place, the last European competition at the moment, and 5th and 10th place occupied by the surprising Espanyol, with one game remaining, against Real Madrid in the Super Cup race in January. They are in 28th place in the Champions League.

The Lions can finish the first round with a maximum of 26 points if they defeat Osasuna on January 3 in their first match of 2026. That average will reach 52 points by the end of the season. In 38 days with 24 wins and 25 losses in the league, they needed 70 bags to win the title of champion. Everyone believes that it is almost impossible to reach this position, but in order to achieve the European targets set at each level (European League or Conference) in August, we need to significantly improve our numbers in the second round, starting with the visit to Mallorca in Son Moi.

Chinwuri acknowledged this in his last press conference of the year, even warning about how compressed the classification had become. “You have to look with one eye forward and the other behind you. If you want to win what you want, the second round has to be better. Any result is a step forward, any result is a step back,” he said. In any case, he also sent a message of hope, saying, “We have to cherish each and every game.There’s still a lot left to do, and there are many league games ahead.”