Granada CF hosts Athletic Bilbao in round 1 of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Saturday, September 12th at Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes (Granada)
Granada returned to La Liga in 2019 after a two-year stay in Segunda. It turned out well. Moreover, the men of Diego Martinez Penas were one of the discoveries of the season. The modest team quite consistently spent the entire championship in the group of leaders and finished in 7th place. It will hardly manage to climb higher, as there were so many strong and ambitious opponents. Now everyone is waiting for the Nasrids to slow down, and the question is how much will they lose. They managed to loan Yangel Herrera from Manchester City once again, and Gonalons' contract was bought out. The management found funds to purchase Luis Milla and Dimitri Foulquier. However, Jesús Vallejo returned to Real Madrid. Granada looked quite weak in the offseason and mostly lost in test matches. However, gaining victory is not the most important thing in these games - the coaches are experimenting with and testing various options of the squad.
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Athletic spoiled its grades for the last season by failing the ending. The Basques generally looked very good, but they lost in four out of the last five matches, even to the relegated Leganes. We can say that the priority of Bilbao was the fight for the cup. But the final of this tournament has not been played yet – Athletic and Real Sociedad agreed to hold the decisive match in front of spectators. So the clubs will define the fate of the trophy later, and the date has not been set yet. However, the Basques extended the contract with their coach, Gaiska Garitano. The squad of Athletic remains de facto unchanged. There are almost no new players at San Mames, and it is not surprising, given the specifics of the Basques' transfer policy. The changes are purely cosmetic - they released those who are not needed by the current coaching staff. However, there are no newcomers either, only those who returned from the loan. They wrote a lot about the return of Xavi Martinez, but the management has not tried to buy the veteran from Bayern.
As a rule, the team, which plays at home, shows better results in this pair. Last season, all four matches (two games in LaLiga and in the cup) ended with victories of the hosts. Bookmakers believe that the forces are approximately equal. They give the minimum advantage to the visitors. Probably, the game will not be particularly bright because both clubs are focusing on defense. I think we should wait for a low-scoring match.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.0 goals scored
