La Liga: Athletic Bilbao vs. Real Madrid Preview, Odds, Prediction

Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid meet on Wednesday in a match that could have massive implications on the La Liga standings. The hosts are chasing one of the top four places, which leads to the UEFA Champions League or at least one of those that secure a ticket for the international stage. Meanwhile, Los Blancos play to keep the gap between them and Sevilla. Despite having a few points more, the powerhouse from Madrid needs to be careful, because they have one game more than the unit from Pizjuan.

Preview

Athletic Bilbao (+240) started the season well, but had a miserable last few weeks. Their win over Betis this Sunday night, 3-2, was the first one following eight straight events, during which the Basques posted three losses and five draws.

As usual, their matches are very tough, without too many goals involved. Only three in the recent stretch saw over 2.5 scores, and in the last seven, five ended with just one side netting.

Bilbao is in the middle of the standings when looking only at the home games. In nine of them, Athletic recorded four wins, two draws, and three defeats, with 12 goals scored and 10 conceded.

Real Madrid (+110) snapped a streak of 10 straight wins against Cadiz at home on Sunday night. The game ended without goals, and to be honest, the guests had enormous luck because Los Blancos missed an unreal number of chances.

Though if there is one thing that could satisfy Carlo Ancelotti and Real’s fans, that would be defensive performance. This was the fifth consecutive contest for Real in which they haven’t allowed a goal, which needs to be acknowledged.

The Madridians have been rampant on the road since the beginning of the campaign. In 12 outings, they posted 10 triumphs, one draw, and one loss, currently riding a six-win streak.

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Both sides have an incredible number of absent players for this game.

Remiro, Molina, Vivian, Ezkieta, Nolaskoain, Simon, and Berchiche are all out for the hosts.

As for Real, Asensio, Carvajal, Casemiro, Isco, Marcelo, Modric, Rodrygo, and Bale are also unavailable for various reasons.

Head to Head Games

These two sides met three weeks ago in Madrid. Real was better, posting a minimal win over the big rivals 1-0, with Karim Benzema hitting the back of the net.

Bilbao is without a win at home over Real in the last five meetings. Four ended with a draw and one in Real’s favor, 0-1.

Prediction

Injury problems will limit the options for both coaches, who are probably going to apply a bit more conservative tactics. We are pretty sure that Ancelotti wouldn’t be unhappy to take one point from San Mames, and he won’t be rushing into anything. The same goes for his colleague on the other side, Marcelino García Toral. Also, Athletic plays slow and low-efficient matches, and as we saw all the numbers that prove that. After analyzing the entire situation, our only pick here would be under 2.5 goals. The odds on that are +100 and that is a great bargain.

Pick: Under 2.5 goals +100