Athletic Bilbao’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League suffered a blow on Monday as they only drew 0-0 with bottom-placed Almeria despite playing with the man advantage for most of the second half.
A win would have lifted Athletic into fourth place in La Liga, ahead of Atletico Madrid, but Ernesto Valverde’s side struggled against a defensive home side.
Óscar de Marcos of The Athletic said: “We had possession of the ball for the majority of the match, so we feel it wasn’t enough.” “It’s disappointing that we didn’t create more clear-cut chances when the game was in our favor.”
Athletic, without top scorer Gorka Gorzeta and in-form winger Nico Williams, played with 10 men after winger Raji Ramazani was sent off in the 53rd minute.
Raul Garcia hit the post for Athletic in his 600th league appearance, but the team’s poor start to the year will be a cause for concern for Valverde.
Athletic, who won nine of 11 games between early November and mid-January, have only won four of 12 games since then.
Almeria, on the other hand, were able to celebrate their seventh goal of the season with a draw.
The south coast club are without a win in the league all season, losing 17 times. They are now 13 points out of the safe zone.
As a result, Athletic remain in fifth place, two points behind Atletico Madrid.
Real Madrid lead the table with a five-point lead over Girona.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer