Athletic Bilbao vs Valencia Prediction - A Major Test For Los Che

Next Thursday, 9th of April 2015, Nuno Espirito Santo’s Valencia will travel to the Basque Country to measure forces with Athletic Bilbao at the Cathedral San Mames for round 30 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

After two consecutive wins for La Liga, Valencia failed to achieve the third one in a row in their last weekend’s derby against their neighbours Villarreal. Los Che were probably the best team during the entire match but failed to materialise the goal chances they had. Nuno Espirito Santo’s boys also had more ball possession but in the end they did not manage to get anything better than a goalless draw.

Valencia are going through a fantastic overall moment, as they have not lost any of their last eight official matches. The last time Los Che were defeated was back in the first days of February, more than two months ago, at the hands of the always unpredictable Málaga at La Rosaleda.

Valencia’s upcoming clash against Athletic will certainly be far from easy, as they will go head-to-head with a team that they didn’t manage to overcome the last four times they played for La Liga. Playing at San Mames is never easy, but if we think that Athletic has been going through a solid recovery process, things may get even worse, something that will force Valencia to put in some extra elbow grease if they want to overcome the Basque team.

As for Athletic, after their nightmarish season start, they seem to be slowly getting back on track. The Basque team has only lost three times since the beginning of February and before last weekend’s defeat at Sanchez Pizjuan, they were on a superb five-match winning stint.

Ernesto Valverde, who some have accused of being the main responsible behind Athletic’s poor season start, managed to somehow rally his troops and this “new” version of the team appears to have everything in place to cause Valencia a major upset next Thursday.

Despite the Basque team’s recent impressive moment, the visitors, Valencia, are favourites for upcoming clash, as they must win if they still want to nurture their dreams of reclaiming the third place of La Liga, currently occupied by Atlético Madrid.

Athletic

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - LWWWW

Valencia

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - DWWDW

Possible Line-ups

Athletic (4-2-3-1) - Iraizoz - de Marcos - Etxeita - Laporte - Balenziaga - Benat - San José - Williams - Rico - Muniain - Aduriz

Valencia (4-3-3) – Alves - Barragan - Mustafi - Otamendi - Gaya - Javi Fuego - Dani Parejo - André Gomes - Piatti - Paco Alcácer - Rodrigo

Injury List / Suspended Players

Athletic

none

Valencia

Enzo Perez (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

Top Players:

Athletic

Aritz Aduriz

Iker Muniain

Gorka Iraizoz

Valencia

Dani Parejo

Nicolas Otamendi

Pablo Piatti

Predictable Goal Scorers:

Athletic

1. Aritz Aduriz
2. Iker Muniain
3. Mikel San José

Valencia

1. Dani Parejo
2. Pablo Piatti
3. Paco Alcácer

Half-Time Score

Athletic 1 Valencia 0

Full-Time Score

Athletic 1 Valencia 1