Next Saturday, 18th of October 2014, Celta de Vigo will travel to the Basque Country to measure forces with Athletic Bilbao at the Cathedral San Mámes for round eight of Liga BBVA on a match of major importance for both sides because of fairly different reasons.

Athletic Bilbao are definitely not having the best of season start’s so far. The Basque team’s performances have been very inconsistent and they’ve failed to win any of their last seven matches, thus increasing the pressure on Ernesto Valverde, the man of who succeeded Marcelo Bielsa at the helm of Bilbao and that guided the team to a place in the UEFA Champions League this season.

On the last round of La Liga, Athletic were completely trashed by an implacable Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabéu and the five goals they conceded only served to rip to shreds the last traces of motivation that the team could hypothetically still have.

The next two matches, first against Celta de Vigo and in the middle of the week against FC Porto for the Champions League, will probably be decisive for Valverde’s future in front of Athletic, since if the team continues with their recent poor streak, the winds of change could very well hit Bilbao and Valverde’s reign might come to an abrupt end.

For the match against Celta, the Extremadura-born manager is not yet certain if he will be able to count on the contribution of Aduriz, Bustinza and Gomez, who are still recovering from their respective injuries.

As for Celta de Vigo, the Galician team suffered their first defeat of the season last round by the hand of Villarreal at Balaídos. Toto Berizzo’s boys were not as spectacular as they have been on several other occasions this season and some childish defensive mistakes have given the Yellow Submarine the opportunity to sink Celta’s uninspired armada.

Despite last round’s upset, Celta have been showing signs of great class so far this season and they will certainly look to bounce back already in the next match at San Mámes. Berizzo has been doing a fantastic job with the Galician team and has already proven that he can take this Celta to higher grounds and even maybe grant a place on international competitions next season.

For the match against Athletic, Berizzo will not be able to count on some important players, such as Fontás, who is currently suspended, and Augusto Fernandez, who is still recovering from his recent injury. The team’s number 10 and one of the most important players so far this season, Nolito, is still in doubt for the match, as he is still not 100% fit and keeps working with some limitations during the training sessions.

Last season, Bilbao smashed Celta at San Mamés by 4-0, but this term, although they might enjoy from a slight favouritism because they are playing at home, things will probably be different, as the Galician side has already proven that they can cause plenty of problems to any team, regardless of the fact of playing at home or away from Los Balaídos.

Athletic Bilbao

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LLDLL

Celta

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - LWWDD

Possible Line-ups

Athletic Bilbao (4-2-3-1) - Iraizoz - D. Marcos - Gurpegi - Laporte - Balenziaga - Iturraspe - M. Rico - Muniain - Beñat - Susaeta - Guillermo

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Jonny - Planas - Cabral - S. Gómez - Álex Lopez - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - Orellana - Nolito - Larrivey

Prediction

Athletic 1 Celta de Vigo 2