This week’s match-up in San Mamés Stadium: Athletic Bilbao – Valencia CF. I couldn’t leave the Basque Country without paying a visit to Spain’s oldest football stadium so I decided to head down to Bilbao and pay my support to Athletic.

I would’ve loved to write about a clinching Athletic victory but sadly enough the Lions lost the game with 1-2. They played a very nice second half and surely deserved a draw. But if football was logic, the game wouldn’t be worth watching, so let’s hope Athletic has better luck next week.

Our crew was four men strong as we drove down to Bizkaia’s capital. We arrived a couple of hours in advance but you could notice that an Athletic game was about to go down. A lot of bars were already packed with fans in red and white. Men, women and children, all dressed up in the club’s colours. I felt a bit like an outsider with my regular clothes so I quickly visited the fan shop to buy something more ‘tributing’.

Ambience

As the kick-off approached, the atmosphere grew stronger. The hardcore supporter clans (like the Herri Norte Taldea) started to sing club anthems while others banged their drums or blew their horns. As long as you make noise, you’re in.

San Mamés is the oldest stadium in Spain but their currently building a new one just a few meters further. The stadium was completely rebuilt to host matches in the 1982 World Cup. It can seat almost 40,000 people and is practically sold out every game.

The main tribune of San Mamés © Athletic Bilbao

Entering a football stadium and giving the pitch a first glance is always quite exciting. We were seated at the north side of the stadium, pretty much in the corner. Not the best seats of course (student budget you know), but I didn’t care much, I was about to see Spanish football at the highest level!

Entertaining second half

While Athletic is running a quite anonymous season (currently standing 8th), Valencia occupies a respectable 3rd position, which is rewarded with a Champions League ticket at the end of the season.

Muniain celebrating his goal © Athletic Bilbao

The first half was pretty much obsolete with very few real chances but the second half totally made up for that with goals, a penalty and a lot of drama. For a full match report I redirect you to Koen’s blog.

At the end of the ride, this was a pleasant acquaintance with La Liga’s football. An eye-opener for sure when you’ve only seen Belgium football live.

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The best part of the week still stays the weekend. Reason one: a lot of free time. Reason two: football. My match of the week: Athletic Club versus Valencia CF.

Athletic - Valencia

Even there are more top teams in Spain then there are in Belgium, the opportunity to see Valencia CF play doesn’t come around every week. David Villa, Juan Mata, Joaquin, Pablo Hernandez, … not the ‘most average Joe’s’ is a term that immediately pops to my head if I hear the names of those players.

And there is the fact that every football fan had to pay San Mamés a visit. A stadium that breaths football, going old English style, not those fancy new hyper modern buildings that have to pass as a ‘football’ stadium.

Pre match experience

Three hours before kick-off and the bars were already full, the official shop was almost sold out and everybody was stoked. Positive nerves were floating around San Mamés, not only around the stadium, even in the centre of the city you could feel that there was a football match coming up.

First 45 minutes

After searching for the seats – not really an easy job – it was time to kick off. The Athletic supporters were trying to create a great atmosphere, but if the players on the field aren’t doing the best job ever, it’s hard to talk about a good game. Pablo Hernandez had a couple of nice moves though, but Mata couldn’t make the finish.

When Athletic’s top striker Fernando Llorente was substituted for De Marcos, my hopes for an Athletic win weren’t that high anymore.

Second half

David Villa after the equalizer

After the break, we finally noticed where San Mamés is famous for. The fans were starting to believe more and more in a good result against Valencia and after the 1-0 from Iker Muniain (impressing football player, and only 16 years old) the stadium exploded. The fact that David Villa equalized a few minutes later (with a beautiful volley) didn’t seem to bother them. ‘Athletic Athletic Athletic’ was rolling out of everyone’s mouth.

The game settled down, but then Koikili received his second yellow card after an unnecessary fault on Juan Mata. Valencia smelled the victory, but they had to wait until seven minutes before the final whistle to take the lead. After a bad clearance from Iraizoz, Mathieu smashed a volley home.

Less than five minutes on the clock, but Athletic didn’t give up. First an offside goal from Iraola was disallowed, but a couple of minutes later Athletic had to perfect opportunity to take one point against Valencia. Referee Antonio Rubinos Pérez was the only one who saw a fault from David Navarro on Martinez, but Lopez kicked the penalty against the post.

To describe Athletic as a club, that’s still a hard thing to do. I would say unique, great atmosphere and very passionate.

Movie: David Lopez misses the penalty

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