Hello! Welcome to episode number 3 of this series with Barakaldo.

In this one, we will be covering the third round of Copa Del Rey and our next 5 matches from Primera Division.

Game 9

Barakaldo 3 – Racing Santander 2

The string of good performances continues to bring people to our stadium. This time 18732 fans congregated at Lasesarre to watch this match. Our rival Racing Santander was a hard challenge and they gave us a good run for our money. The starting goal by Garmendia was quickly shot down by a double of Alex and Islhat Faizulin. Even so, our guys didn’t throw away the towel, and Exposito with a screamer from the right side levelled the match. A few minutes later, Zamarripa tapped in a rebound from a Gurria shot, and we were up again. In the second half the action wasn’t as much as in the first one, and neither team managed to score any more. We have a match for Copa Del Rey against this same lot so I hope we have learned a few things in the way to repeat.

Copa Del Rey Third Round Leg 1

Barakaldo 2 – Racing Santander 0

Lineup changes:

Gorka Gonzalez for Iñaki Ibañez
Xabier Pantzeska for Oscar Alkorta as a sub

The fact that our match was in a Thursday didn’t impede that 100 fans more than our last attendance showed up at Lasesarre to witness this match. And we did repeat a fine performance. Bakero lead the charge against Racing, taking the most amount of shots and managing to net one in the 30^th minute of the game with Gurria previously opening the game in the 21th minute. Oscar Garcia was the one who tried the most from Racing but he didn’t succeed as neither did anybody else from the team. We hold a good goal difference heading to leg 2 in El Sardinero.

Game 10

Logroñes 1 – Barakaldo 2

A few needed changes as the match is on Saturday and there is little recovery time

Lineup changes:

Jose Angel Uribarrena for Oscar Gurria
Xabier Pantzeska for Jose Maria Bakero
Luis Fernando Dadie for Lamar Alexis
Roberto Martinez for Juan Zamarripa

An absolutely powerful display by Roberto Martinez, who took responsibility of the attacking display at Las Gaunas. He levelled the game after an unfortunate own goal by Garmendia, and kept on pushing Adolfo firmly. In one of those occasions he forced a ball which touched Nayim and ended in the back of the net. Logroñes didn’t retaliate in the rest of the game and we take the win.

Game 11

Barakaldo 3 – Tenerife 1

Time to even the playing time between the goalkeepers

Lineup changes:

Aitor Iru for Gorka Sangroniz

Jose Maria Bakero for Agustin Expósito

Roberto Martinez woke up in the right side of the bed this Saturday and boy he was on the rampage! Despite pulling one goal back courtesy of Domingos, Roberto quickly added a third and I saw the screen sign “Tenerife has gone defensive”. I was left wondering how much defensive had they gone, and I found out this:

Geez, first half against a recently promoted team. Is this really necessary?. During the rest of the game, they kept this formation until the 75^th minute where they resorted to a standard 532 defensive and managed to get a shot on our net. We ended up with 10 shots on target, and 3 goals.

Copa Del Rey Third Round Leg 2

Racing Santander 1 – Barakaldo 0

Lineup changes:

Hector Victor Sanz for Dani Alonso

In El Sardinero, there was no display of magic and we are narrowly defeated. I made a couple of late changes in the hope of a calming goal, but it never materialized. What’s important though is that given the goal difference I’m through to the next round.

Game 12

Atletico Madrid 1 – Barakaldo 2

I’m honestly surprised with this result. If you take a look at Atletico Madrid’s names, a narrow defeat can be considered a good result (especially with two excellent free kick takers like Milinko Pantic and Juninho). Nevertheless, we complete a fantastic assault and leave the Colchoneros surprised when the referee signals the end of the match. The initial goal by Gallardo wasn’t a deterrent and Bakero levelled after a cross from Roberto Martinez before we reached half-time. In the second half we traded blows and with the clock running out, Bakero returned the favor to Roberto and with a splendid pass left him on a breakaway against Ceballos. Roberto wasn’t in a forgiving mood and the ball went through the net. The remaining 6 minutes was just holding on tightly and it’s 3 terrific points we are taking to our basque city.

Game 13

Barakaldo 2 – Sevilla 2

A little bit of a wobble here, as we’re the dominant team and we only managed to salvage a point from this meeting. Despite our best efforts we’re taken by surprise by Sevilla and the joy that was surrounding Lasesarre turns to faces of concern with two goals in the final five minutes of the first half.

Game 21

Athletic Bilbao 2 – Barakaldo 1

We push Athletic all the way in San Mames but our efforts weren’t enough. Tabuenka finish us off when the match had 20 minutes yet to end.

Before wrapping up this episode, let’s take a look at the standings as of now:

Looking good for the moment!

Now yes, we reached the end of episode number 3.

Tune in next week for a new episode. See ya 🙂