Eibar win 4-3 to ensure home advantage for the playoffs
It’s the sixth consecutive victory for Los Armeros at Ipurua
Eibar defeated Real Oviedo 4-3 on Sunday to clinch third place. After the 42 games of the regular season, Los Armeros will now enter the playoffs and will have home advantage throughout.
In the semi-final, they’ll face Real Oviedo again. The first leg will come up on Saturday June 8th at the Estadio Carlos Tartiere, before the second leg on Wednesday June 12th at Ipurua.
In Sunday’s game, Eibar went behind early when Borja Sánchez capitalised on a defensive mix-up to receive the ball inside the six-yard box and slot home past Luca.
The goal did nothing to dampen Los Armeros’ spirits, though, and the home side pressed forward in search of a quick equaliser, which almost came in the 13th minute when Mario Soriano’s left-footed effort was pushed behind for a corner by Leo Román.
The equaliser came in the 25th minute when Ager Aketxe converted a penalty for a handball by an Oviedo player.
Eibar dominated with their vertical and incisive play and wanted more. Stoichkov appeared to give Eibar the lead in the 36th minute, after a rebound from the goalkeeper from a shot from Sergio León, but the goal was disallowed for a very narrow offside.
Three minutes later it was indeed 2-1, when Sergio León headed into the net, getting to the ball first after Cristian’s good service from the left.
Real Oviedo, who were fighting to ensure their promotion place, were forced to take risks, leaving Eibar with space to counter attack.
The final stretch of the game was particularly wild. Real Oviedo equalised in the 81st minute through Borja Bastón's header, but two minutes later Jose Corpas launched a superb counter-attack on the left flank which he himself finished by lifting the ball over the goalkeeper.
In the 90th minute, Stoichkov made it 4-2 with a left-footed strike from Unai Vencedor’s pass, before Borja Bastón made it 4-3 in stoppage time.
It was Eibar’s sixth consecutive win at Ipurua and, while it wasn’t enough to secure an automatic promotion spot, it does secure third place and means that Eibar will have second legs at home in the playoffs.