Athletic Miss Penalty, Held Scoreless by Alavés at San Mamés

With 24 shots and 69 percent possession, Athletic Club ran into a wall time and again against Alavés at San Mamés. The match finished 0-0, and not even a second-half penalty could break the deadlock. The LaLiga fixture left the home side with a sense of a missed opportunity, having dominated nearly the entire match without finding a way past Antonio Sivera.

The script was written almost from the opening whistle: Athletic camped in the opposing half and began piling up chances. Robert Navarro tried his luck from inside the box in the 9th minute, Yuri Berchiche fired one over the bar in the 10th, and in the 14th, Iñaki Williams headed from close range off a corner kick but couldn't find the target. Alavés, meanwhile, barely showed up going forward: a long-range effort from Carlos Protesoni in the 25th minute and another in the 30th were their only attempts of the first half.

The siege continued after the break. Jesús Areso, who had come on at halftime for Johaneko Louis-Jean, tested the keeper in the 47th minute, and Oihan Sancet and Íñigo Ruiz de Galarreta pressed soon after. The visiting goal held firm shot after shot, and the match seemed destined for home frustration until, in the 67th minute, the clearest chance of the match arrived: Nahuel Tenaglia brought down Nico Williams inside the box for a penalty.

The Penalty That Didn't Go In

With the chance to take the lead, Oihan Sancet stepped up to the spot in the 69th minute. His effort, struck with his right foot, was saved low to the goalkeeper's left. The miss left the score at 0-0 and, with it, every doubt about how Athletic had failed up to that point to turn their clear dominance into goals.

After the missed penalty, the San Mamés side kept pushing. Nico Williams, Íñigo Ruiz de Galarreta, Yuri Berchiche and, in the closing stretches, substitutes Peio Canales and Nico Serrano all tried their luck from various positions, but no shot found the net. Alavés, sitting deep with few attacking options of their own, held firm to the end, even through five minutes of stoppage time that passed without incident.

The Numbers Behind a Sterile Dominance

The stats confirm what was plain to see on the field: an Athletic Club side that tried everything except scoring.

The gap also shows up in the expected goals estimate we calculate from the match's shots: Athletic Club generated 1.69 xG compared to just 0.07 for Alavés. It's a massive difference that illustrates the level of the siege, though, as is often the case with these numbers, it guarantees nothing if the ball doesn't go in.

The result also runs counter to our pre-match projections, which gave Athletic Club a 39 percent chance of winning, a 31 percent chance of a draw and a 30 percent chance of an away win, with combined expected goals of 2.45. The draw, the least likely of the three outcomes heading in, ended up being the actual result, something neither the total dominance nor the flurry of shots could change.

What the Point Leaves Behind

With the point split, Alavés moves to 11 points so far this season, with a record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in 7 matches played, sitting ahead of Athletic Club, who have 8 points after 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in 6 matches. The gap between the two sides in the standings stands at 3 points. For the San Mamés side, the match stands as further proof that creating chances isn't always enough: without a goal, neither volume of play nor lopsided possession counts for much.