Next Saturday, 20th of September 2014, Athletic Bilbao will entertain the surprising Granada at the Cathedral San Mamés on what will probably be one of the most interesting matches of round 4 of La Liga.

The charismatic Basque team was not able to stop the new Barcelona of Luis Enrique that seem to have returned to their good old days this season. Two goals by the Brazilian wonder boy Neymar in the last 15 minutes of match dictated the final outcome and imposed the second defeat of the season to Athletic. The Basque side’s goalkeeper, Iraizoz, put up a vintage performance and delayed the Catalan goal for as long as he could, but there was nothing he could actually do when Neymar opened the score on the 79th minute of the match.

Bilbao had a good match, generally speaking, with large moments of quality possession with the ball circulating very smoothly between their midfield men, confining Barcelona to their half of the pitch, although that was not enough to win the match.

The Basque team’s season start was certainly not the one their supporters were expecting, with already two defeats in three matches, although the outcome from their day 1 clash against Málaga could have been very different if the referee had wisely judged the last free kick of the match, when Iraizoz headed the ball to the end of the Andalusia team’s net.

For their clash against Granada next Saturday, Ernesto Valverde will probably not be able to rely on the contribution of Guillermo Fernández, who is still recovering from his injury.

As for Granada, the Joaquin Caparrós’ boys are enjoying a very positive season start as they remain undefeated after three matches. Last weekend, Granada entertained Villarreal at Los Cármenes and conceded a goalless draw to the visitors, who managed to grab the first point in their history at that particular stadium.

Granada woke up late in the match and, when they tried to get something out of it, they crashed into an inspired Sergio Asenjo who stopped all the attacking intents made by the Nazaries.

When both sides met at San Mamés last season, the Basque team smashed the visitors by a conclusive 4-0, although next weekend’s challenge might not be as easy for the home side, since Granada look fairly more consistent currently than they were in the previous campaign. Anyway, Athletic are firm favourites to win next Saturday’s clash, but before that, they will need to focus on their complicated Champions League match against the Ukrainian giants of Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday.

Athletic Bilbao

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - LWWWL

Granada

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - DDWWW

Possible Line-ups

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

Granada (4-4-2) - Roberto - Nyom - Babin - Murillo - Sissoko - Rico - Iturra - Rochina - Piti - Córdoba - Success

Prediction

Athletic 2 Granada 0