Athletic Bilbao take on the visitors Mallorca in the round 1 match of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Monday, August 15th at San Mames (Bilbao).
Athletic completed their collaboration with Marcelino Garcia Toral. It all started quite promising: only after arriving in Bilbao, the coach won the country's Super Cup - and for this you needed victories over Barcelona and Real Madrid! In addition, there was an advancement to the final of the Copa del Rey. But they lost it, and in the LaLiga, the "Basques" could not become something more than an average team. The last season brought them only 55 points - and this is 8th place. As a result, Ernesto Valverde returned to the post of head coach. This will be Ant's 3rd stint at San Mames, from where he left to coach Barcelona. He will face the same specifics: having released a couple of players, only Gorka Guruceta, a local guy who moved from Amorebieta as a free agent, strengthened the squad. All other new names are young people from their own "reserve".
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Mallorca managed to achieve the main goal last season. They finally don’t have to change division after the first year of performances in it. And before, the Bermelones in recent history had risen to the LaLiga, but with instant departures back. And only in the last temporade did they manage to “survive”, so the invitation of Javier Aguirre in March justified itself. The Mexican won 4 out of 9 matches with his wards and raised them to 16th place. But everything was decided by the minimum clearance: Mallorca took 39, and Granada was relegated out with 38! It was clear that updating, strengthening the composition would not hurt. And, having let go of half a dozen players, the "islanders" signed Battaglia as a free agent, and also spent a significant 12-13 million for themselves by signing Rajkovic, Muriqui and Pablo Maffeo. All of them may well immediately go out in the main team. But still, the team remains one of the weakest, so the task remains the same: once again we have to fight for survival in the country's top division.
Athletic haven't lost 9 head-to-head matches in a row. But in February, before the arrival of Aguirre, Mallorca won 3-2. In many ways, those 3 points were the salvation for the newcomer in the top Spanish football division. Bookmakers believe that Ernesto Valverde will make his debut in the old-new place successfully as a convenient opponent is coming to Bilbao.
Prediction for the match: Athletic Bilbao to win.
