Deportivo La Coruña vs Athletic Bilbao Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Oct 16, 2015 @ 01:00 am

Next Sunday, 18th of October 2015, the surprising Deportivo La Coruña will entertain an inconsistent Athletic Bilbao at the emblematic Riazor for Round 8 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Deportivo La Coruña are probably the most pleasant surprise of La Liga so far and the work Victor Sanchez has been performing at the club, ever since he joined later last season, cannot go unnoticed. The former Michel Gonzalez’ assistant manager at Olympiacos FC implemented a completely new winning mentality and a fluid attacking game style into the Galician team soon after his arrival and he is already cashing in results.

Deportivo were only defeated once in seven competitive matches so far this season and are currently in the 6th place of the table just four points behind the league leader Villarreal.

Before the international break, the Galician team didn’t manage to get anything better than a draw from their visit to Granada, a match during which they were by far the better team.

Next weekend’s fixture against Athletic will certainly be a complicated match for Depor, since the Bilbao-based side are extremely motivated after their solid home win over Valencia last time out.

For that important clash, Victor Sanchez will still not be able to rely on the contribution of the Spanish goalkeeper Fabricio, who remains sidelined due to injury, while both Fajr and Cartabia are still in doubt for the match, as they are not yet fully recovered from their respective injuries.

As for Athletic, the Bilbao team is far from a dream season start so far, as they’ve have only managed to win two of their seven competitive matches.

Their second league win happened before the international break when they overcame Valencia at San Mamés by 3-1 with goals from Laporte, Susaeta and Aduriz.

Athletic are currently in the 13th place of the table just one point above the relegation zone and, before defeating Valencia two weeks ago, they had been through an extremely negative streak of results with three defeats in four matches.

The Pamplona-born wonder kid Iker Muniain is still recovering from his long term injury and will not be part of Ernesto Valverde’s plans for his team’s travel to Galicia next Sunday.

Deportivo La Coruña

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - DWWLW

Athletic

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - WLDLL

Possible Line-ups

Deportivo La Coruña (4-4-2) – Lux - Juanfran - Lopo - Sidnei - Navarro - Borges - Mosquera - Alberto - Fajr - Lucas Perez - Riera

Athletic (4-2-3-1) - Iraizoz - De Marcos - Etxeita - Laporte - Balenziaga - Benat - San José - Raul Garcia - Williams - Susaeta - Aduriz

Injury List / Suspended Players

Deportivo La Coruña - Fabricio (inj) - Fajr (in doubt) - Cartabia (in doubt)

Athletic - Muniain (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions