Terzic's Athletic achieves its first victory against an overmatched Celta

Edin Terzic's needy Athletic left Vigo tonight with their first three points in the League. The Bilbao team arrived at Balaídos after the two defeats they had suffered against Sevilla and Barça and left with a victory that was as relieving as it was stimulating for their followers, who finally saw the aggressive and electric version that the German coach who in 2024 took Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League final was presumed to give to the team. The superiority was so evident that some whistles were even heard in the stadium during the first section due to the passivity and ineffectiveness of the Vigo players, surpassed by the rhythm of a rival who at times outpaced them three days after also losing at home to Osasuna. The 0-2 left Claudio Giráldez's Celta with only one point in the first three days, also pending a visit to a rival as tough as Real Sociedad next Thursday.

The first half for Athletic was splendid due to the intensity of the forward pressure and the finesse in the vertical combinations. The 0-2 with which the first act closed thanks to the goals of Berenguer and Robert Navarro even seemed short after Radu saved two heads-up against Sancet and Iñaki Williams. The way in which Gerenabarrena and Ruiz de Galarreta bit gave a lot of benefit to the people of Bilbao. After the first robbery of Carreira in the midfield came the goal from Berenguer, who nailed a bowed shot to the long post between two rivals in an extraordinary maneuver. Another recovery of the second led to a fast and precise counterattack in which Ruiz de Galarreta himself assisted Robert Navarro with a fantastic pass.

The deployment of Terzic's group did not give Celta respite in the first half, overwhelmed by the combinations of his rival and the union conviction with which he sent his players to hinder the release of the ball. Giráldez's team suffered from the construction of the game with Miguel Román on the bench and Marcos Alonso suspended for the red card he saw on Thursday against Osasuna. The defender's replacement in the left center was the young Abdoulaye Faye, who was seen green in some actions before being relieved at half-time.

Celta only released two isolated pecks until the intermission in two actions carried out by Jutglá, the most in tune of the attackers, although neither of them were a consequence of the game. The striker beat Laporte on a long ball from Javi Rodríguez and assisted Swedberg in an obvious position against Unai Simón, but the shot came out very centered. The second was a hard header from a corner kick that Jutglà hit the crossbar.

Athletic's game flowed, aided by the quality of Sancet, a player with an outstanding ability to orient himself towards the goal with control and dominate the spaces. Giráldez shook up the group with four new additions at half-time, when Aspas, Rueda, Miguel Román and Yoel Lago replaced Hugo González, Javi Rodríguez, Ilaix and Faye. The O Porriño coach even exhausted the changes in the 57th minute by replacing Swedberg with Hugo Álvarez, an unprecedented modus operandi in the more than two years he has been on the celestial bench.