On Indalecio Ojanguren street are two blocks of flats that tower over Ipurua, meaning fans still got to watch the actionA small boy was waiting for the two buses carrying Athletic Club’s players as they turned the corner and edged up the hill towards Ipurua. When they pulled over outside, he clambered down from a grass bank and on to his dad’s shoulders for a glimpse of his idols that neither he nor anyone else was going to get inside. Just across the road, a couple of people had gathered by the gravel bowling court sheltered under the AP8 motorway as it thunders past the ground. And down at Bar Terraza, where framed Eibar shirts line the wall, four people...
At the start of the season, Eibar, Getafe and Girona all had the same objective: survival. Now it can shift to EuropeThe alarm went off again at Ipurúa on Wednesday, siren echoing around the Ego valley as if there was an air raid coming, but it was nothing to fear. Although the noise assaults eardrums, loud, piercing and heard all across Eibar, it’s a source of comfort now, not concern. Cause for celebration, too. For years the siren wailed at 7.3am every morning to wake up workers employed in the Alfa metal factory, a cooperative where they made Smith and Wesson revolvers, Singer sewing machines and bicycles, until one day production was moved out of town. The factory was knocked...
It took until the sixth game for Alavés to win and by then two coaches had gone. Now survival in La Liga is within reachIn the words of one player, Abelardo Fernández is “an ordinary bloke” but he is doing extraordinary things, from revolution at the Molinón to resurrection at Mendizorroza, where at the end of their victory over Deportivo de La Coruña on Saturday, Alavés fans did something Alavés fans never do: they turned their backs on their team. Turned their backs, put their arms around each other’s shoulders, a human wall stretching across the east end of the ground, and bounced up and down, singing. In the middle of it, drums were held up and flags waved. At...
Only Barcelona and Atlético can match Eibar’s results over the last three months as another unlikely run at Europe continuesIván Ramis took off his shirt and put his hat on, a flat red porkpie perched on his head as he stood in the corner of Butarque where a couple of dozen Eibar fans down from the Ego valley were going wild in wigs: some red, some blue and some Scottish, ginger locks tumbling from tam o’ shanters. As he had flung his top high into the air before running towards them shouting, they had thrown the hat on the pitch; so he wore it, along with a smile that even the referee trotting over with a yellow card couldn’t wipe...
Even if Eibar don’t make it into Europe – and, no, they probably still won’t – the fact that there is a chance of them getting there is somethingJosé Luis Mendilibar didn’t see the moment his team drew level with Real Sociedad and took a step closer to a place they’ve never been before. Eibar’s manager had long since left the bench having been sent off for doing what he does – shouting at one of his players – and as the final minute slipped away so did he, leaving his place in the stand too. He was heading to the dressing room, defeated, when he heard a noise. He knew something had happened but didn’t know what. When he...