Valencia take on the visitors Athletic Bilbao in the quarterfinal match of Copa el Rey. The match will be played on Thursday, January 26th at Estadio de Mestalla (Valencia).
Valencia been playing under Gennaro Gattuso since the summer. The Italian was doomed to be compared with Pepe Bordalas, his predecessor. Yes, he also did not take the title, but with him it turned out to add more or less noticeably in La Liga, and in the cup final, with Betis, everything was decided only in the penalty shootout, and this is always, in one sense or another, a lottery with the luck factor. It is noteworthy that under “Rino” the 11-meter ones were let down - this is how they lost in the Super Cup to Real. Well, things are frankly not the best in LaLiga, especially in winter, when at first they lost to Villarreal in the last minutes, and then at home they lost to the fighter for survival, Cadiz. However, the Los Chess themselves have already rolled back to the danger zone, when the relegation zone is already a couple of points away. But even this did not motivate enough: with the newcomer of the division, Almeria, they played a draw, although they were twice in the lead.
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Athletic Bilbao are an old-timer of LaLiga and have never been relegated to the Segunda. Moreover, the “Basques” have taken trophies quite often in their history, and they want to achieve the same. So gratitude to Marcelino was not enough for a long time. This specialist actually took the team from Bilbao in a rather deep recession, and quickly normalized the situation. Moreover, it turned out to finally take the trophy with him - having consistently beaten Barcelona with Real Madrid, they won the Super Cup in 2021. But this has already been forgotten, especially since there were lost finals of the Copa del Rey. And the 8th place in the last temporade was perceived not as progress, but as a loss of the opportunity to return to European competitions. Moreover, Valverde, who not so long ago successfully worked for San Mames, was free - he was invited to return. And Ernesto started his new section of work in the Basque Country perfectly, and for a pause his old-new wards left in the group of leaders. But in the winter, there were enough failures: zero draws with Betis and Osasuna, defeat 1-3 with a rival neighbor, Real Sociedad. After such results, defeat 0-2 at home in the “classic” confrontation with Madrid, it was no longer surprising.
There were 6 draws with a single victory for Valencia. And only in August, Athletic was able to finally win at home, due to Berenguer's ball, which remained the only one. Both clubs now look frankly not the best way. So it begs the bet that in their meeting there will be “less than 2.5 goals scored”.
Prediction for the match: Under 2.5 scored goals.
