Eibar steal a point on visit to Athletic Club

Bilbao (Spain), Jan 27 (IANS) Athletic Club had to settle for a 1-1 draw here against an Eibar side that was in firm control for most of the contest.

Eibar, with 29 points from 21 matches, move up to seventh place in La Liga, three behind Sevilla, who have a game in hand, reports Efe.

Tenth-place Athletic, meanwhile, extended their unbeaten streak to 10.

The hosts were weakened from the start by the absence of Aymeric Laporte, who didn't even dress for the match as he awaited confirmation of an expected move to Manchester City.

Eibar set the tone throughout the first half, when Athletic's only chances came as a result of a pair of defensive blunders, both of them to the advantage of Inaki Williams and both neutralised by visiting keeper Marko Dimitrovic.

But Williams got his own back just five minutes into the second half, barrelling into the offensive zone and delivering a perfect pass to Aritz Aduriz, who scored his 16th goal of the campaign -- eight of them in La Liga -- to give Athletic a 1-0 lead.

While the goal briefly energised the home side, Eibar didn't take long to re-establish their dominance of possession and the equaliser came in the 73rd minute, when Kike Garcia knocked in the rebound after Athletic keeper Iago Herrerin turned aside a shot by Charles.

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