Athletic Bilbao take on the visitors Barcelona in the round 25 match of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Sunday, February 12th at Estadio San Mamés (Bilbao).
Last summer the board decided that their cooperation with Marcelino had exhausted itself and replaced him with former mentor, Ernesto Valverde. Valverde started optimistically in his old-new position, and it seemed that Athletic would replace the falling Sevilla in the top four. However, there was no equally bright continuation. Nevertheless, the ambitious team still has a chance to make the season successful. They reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, although they lost the first match to Osasuna 0-1, which can still be compensated for at home. What is worrying is that this defeat came on the back of a decline in La Liga - which is already their second. It's okay to lose a principled match to Athletic by a minimum score, but then followed 2-3 with Girona and a pair of own goals. They finished with 0-0 draw against Rayo Vallecano, which was already a good result overall.
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The Catalans will try to compensate for all the failures of 2022 in this season. By the way, Barcelona already had a misstep this winter when they were knocked out of the Europa League after the first round, in the round of 16, against Manchester United. However, now they can focus on the internal arena. There, Xavi has already won his first trophy as a coach after returning to Barcelona,beating Real 3-1 in the Super Cup. And last week they managed to beat Real Madrid in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals, where a Militao own goal made all the difference. And in La Liga, this pair typically contests the championship trophy. This time, the Catalans are stronger - they make far fewer mistakes than their Madrid opponent. However, the winning streak at the end of February was interrupted, and at the least expected moment, they lost to newcomers, Almeria, by 0-1. There were also problems with Valencia, and it was not without another removal, but they managed to win with a minimum score.
In the regular time, Athletic defeated the Catalans in the cup in 2020, and more recently played against each other in a penalty shootout. But La Liga’s matches are unconditionally dominated by the Blue Garnets, who won both matches last year. Barcelona will be a favorite even on the road. But, taking into account how pragmatically both sides play, you can bet that there will be “less than 2.5 goals”.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 scored goals.
