Espanyol take on the visitors Athletic Bilbao in the round 28 match of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Saturday, April 8th at RCDE Stadium (Cornella de Llobregat).
After suffering four consecutive defeats in La Liga, Espanyol have already dropped into the relegation zone. However, they have the same number of points as Valencia, who are in the 17th spot. What does this mean? That the battle for survival is still ahead. And if they pull themselves together right now, they can secure their place in La Liga for at least one more season. I cannot say that in the four lost matches in a row, the team looked much worse than their opponents. They scored one goal in each match and in each of them, they had an xG indicator that was slightly higher than one scored goal. They just had bad luck in finishing their attacks and sometimes their defense let them down. I think that their unlucky streak will end in this round against Espanyol, especially since the opponent is not having a great season.
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Indeed, Athletic Bilbao, despite occupying the seventh spot in the table, is not playing impressively. They are already 7 points behind the sixth position. A few days before the match against Espanyol, they were eliminated from the country's cup after spending a lot of energy, but more on that later. As for the Spanish championship, in the last five rounds, Athletic only managed to win once - against Valladolid. There were also two goalless draws with Getafe and Rayo Vallecano, as well as home defeats to Barcelona (0-1) and Girona (2-3). I seriously doubt that the Basques will beat the highly motivated Espanyol on their own turf.
In this 28th round of La Liga, I prefer the 1X bet and believe in the hosts' unbeaten streak. The Espanyol players have much more motivation, and they need points like air. Of course, motivation alone does not win matches, but the home field advantage is also on the side of the white and blue team. Moreover, the dismissal of the head coach should shake up the team. Athletic, on the other hand, does not look threatening this season, and they have only won one match in their last six rounds. They have only won four of their 13 away matches in the league, which is not much. And in their last two matches on the opponent's field, the Basques managed only two draws - both with a score of 1-1. Also, do not forget about the fatigue factor. While Espanyol rested for a week, Athletic played a 120-minute cup match against Osasuna.
Prediction for the match: Espanyol not to lose (1X).
