Athletic Bilbao vs Real Madrid Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Sep 21, 2015 @ 12:59 am

Next Wednesday, 23rd of September 2015, the all-powerful Real Madrid will travel to the Basque Country to measure forces with Athletic Bilbao at the cathedral of San Mamés for Round 5 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

After scoring 15 goals in just three matches, Real Madrid seemed to be a bit short of ideas on how to overcome Granada CF at Santiago Bernabéu last Saturday, but ended up winning the match by 1-0. Los Blancos were surprised by the visitors’ mighty approach to the game and weren’t able to deal with it, especially during the first-half. Granada’s goalkeeper, Andrés Fernandes, put up an excellent performance and also greatly contributed to Real Madrid’s despair last Saturday. The Andalusian team have, nevertheless, some reasons to be upset with the referee’s work after having a goal wrongly dismissed in the first-half.

The match against Granada CF might in a way have worked as some sort of reality check for Real Madrid, who had their motivation levels’ sky high after their recent goal galores. The travel of Rafa Benitez’s men to the Basque Country will certainly not be easy, especially if we have in mind that the last two times Real Madrid played at San Mamés, they have failed to win the match and were even defeated by 1-0 last season.

James Rodriguez, Danilo, Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos remain sidelined due to injury and will surely miss the upcoming match at Bilbao.

As for Athletic, the Basque team is going through a considerably inconsistent moment at La Liga with just one win from four matches so far. Last weekend, the Basque team experienced once again the sour taste of defeat during their visit to El Madrigal, where they ended up being hammered 3-1 by an extremely well organized and confident Villarreal.

Athletic started the new season at full steam by claiming the Spanish Super Cup overcoming the all-powerful Barcelona with a categoric win at San Mamés and a well deserved draw at Camp Nou three days later.

The match against Real Madrid does not come at the best of times for Athletic, but Ernesto Valverde’s men will need to pull ranks if they don’t want to concede the fourth defeat of the season in just five matches.

League Positions