Deportivo remain in La Liga relegation zone after draw

A Coruna (Spain) March 4 (IANS) Deportivo La Coruña and Eibar tied 1-1 with the home team failing to climb out of La Liga s relegation zone after missing several clear scoring opportunities in the first half at the end of which it was left at a disadvantage when keeper Maksym Koval was given a red card.

Deportivo on Saturday would have provisionally climbed to 17th place and out of the relegation zone with 11 games remaining by beating the Basque squad at Riazor Stadium here.

Eibar with a win would have been equal on points with sixth-placed Villareal but instead dropped to eighth place behind Girona reports Efe.

The first goal came 11 minutes into the match when Eibar s Takashi Inui scored off a long cross from Fabian Orellana.

The match was delayed 26 minutes when Orellana was injured and had to be substituted by Pedro Leon.

The tie came a few minutes later when a header by Florin Andone off a pass from Adrian Lopez hit the left post and bounced off Eibar keeper Marko Dmitrovic and into his own goal.

In the 39th minute Koval was sent off for a foul outside the area on Eibar s Joan Jordan but the visitors were unable to capitalize on their numerical edge.

--IANS
gau/bg