Athletic Bilbao vs Real Madrid

Estadio San Mames is the venue as Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid lock horns in a high-stakes La Liga top-four six-pointer. 

Athletic Bilbao pulled off a superb second-half comeback to beat Rayo Vallecano 2-1 at the weekend and leapfrog Villarreal into fourth in the league table, extending their unbeaten streak in La Liga to six games (W3, D3). The current UEFA Europa League leaders have hit a purple patch since a defeat at Girona in early October, avoiding defeat in their nine subsequent outings in all competitions (W6, D3), including three wins in a row ahead of this midweek round. Almost unplayable at home, Ernesto Valverde’s charges haven’t lost any of their eight competitive matches at San Mames since the beginning of September (W6, D2), though both draws in this sequence came in La Liga. That’s a potentially ominous sign for ‘Los Leones’ as they take on Real Madrid, a side they’ve lost to in their last five top-flight H2Hs on home turf. 

In the meantime, Real Madrid bounced back from a dismal 2-0 UEFA Champions League defeat at Liverpool with an identical home win against Getafe over the weekend, closing the gap on La Liga pacesetters Barcelona to a single point. With a game in hand, Carlo Ancelotti’s men are in good shape to ascend the throne, especially considering they’ve won their last three league games by 2+ goals ‘to nil.’ Though they’re the only La Liga team yet to lose a league fixture on the road this season, ‘Los Merengues’ have drawn half of their away encounters (W3, D3), with each stalemate yielding the same 1-1 scoreline. That doesn’t change the fact that they’re unbeaten on their last 21 La Liga travels (W13, D8)!