Tiny Eibar hoping to make it big in Europe

barcelona — Eibar, a tiny club from Spain’s Basque Country, is poised to play in Europe next season after winning its third match in just over a week.

The 2-0 victory at Celta Vigo on Sunday lifted Eibar over northern regional heavyweights Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad into sixth place in the Spanish League, and into position for a Europa League berth.

There are still seven games to go, but Eibar wasn’t supposed to flirt with continental competition. Simply avoiding relegation would have been a success for the club’s third season in the topflight.

Yet here it is, unbeaten in five matches and elbowing its way through the top half of the table.

“We have reached this spot in the standings at a good moment and when there isn’t far to go,” said coach Jose Mendilibar, who is in his first season with the club. “It has been a hard week with three matches, but we knew how to take three points from all of them.”

Eibar, which was playing in the third division in 2013, has the league’s smallest stadium — barely holding 7,000 spectators drawn from the eponymous town that was once famous for manufacturing small arms.

The club’s budget of $45.5m is the third lowest of the 20-team league. But it has been enough to cobble together a group of castoffs and journeymen looking for a second, or third, chance around its single homegrown starter at right back, Ander Capa.

Pedro Leon and Sergi Enrich exemplify the ability of Mendilibar to get more than anyone expected from his players.

Enrich, who bounced around the second division prior to joining Eibar, set up Saturday’s opener in the 13th minute by heading on a pass for Enrique Garcia to net his fourth goal in his last five matches.

Leon, a former Getafe and Madrid midfielder who never made it at Spain’s biggest club, drilled in another goal in the 51st minute to cap a flowing buildup and secure the win at Celta.

“This is a historic season. There are better teams, but we are playing at their level,” the 30-year-old Leon said after equaling Enrich’s season haul of 10 goals.

“I am happy to be with a serious team that does things well and where we have all grown as players.” —