Football Results

This is the season in which Athletic has failed completely, and Atletico plays in line with expectations, so we cannot even say that this is a derby, because of a huge difference in points. However, they are equal in the fact that they still continue to play Europa League, that is, Atletico came from the Champions League and Athletic passed in the group stage. They also have in common that they celebrated on Thursday and they were on the verge of placement in the round of sixteen. In their first mutual duel this season, Atletico has celebrated as a guest in Bilbao with 2-1.

Atletico Madrid

Atletico is playing very well lately and the only mistake is that home draw with Girona, because after an unexpected blunder of Barcelona, they could only have five points behind the Catalans. This way they have seven, but they also have ten more than the third ranked Valencia, so they will miss the title of the vice-champion, if they cannot reach Barcelona yet. The problems for Athletic this season is connected to the Champions League, where they have been defeated, so they are now playing in Europa League, and they were also eliminated in the quarterfinals of the King's Cup.

They were only defeated once in La Liga and they now have a series of three wins, all without any goals scored. They celebrated even eight times this season with 1-0, but this is nothing new for this team in recent years. In Europa League at Copenhaghen, they first received a goal, and then scored four for a safe triumph. Savic and D.Costa have injury problems, and there will certainly be changes compared to the Europa League match.

Probable lineups Atletico Madrid: Oblak – Vrsaljko, Godin, Gimenez, Filipe Luis – Gabi, S.Niguez, Correa, Koke – Griezmann, Gameiro

Athletic Bilbao

Unlike Atletico, “Pride of Basque” has the biggest problems in the championship, and this is best shown by the position of the table since they are at the bottom and quite far from the European positions. That means they will need a great finish of the season to qualify in the Europa League, which this season plays much better than in domestic competitions. They have passed the group stage with fewer problems at the start, and they did a great job in the first duel of the sixteenth finals, when they defeated the Russian champions Spartak in Moscow with 3-1, so the rematch in Bilbao would probably be just a formality.

A few have hoped that Athletic could after a series of bad matches in the championship, celebrate in Moscow, however, the first shooter Aduriz was great and with two goals in the first half he has aimed the match to a desired triumph. They have played with a very strong team, which means they have great ambitions in Europn League, when they are already without a win for five rounds. It is a huge handicap that they cannot count on the suspended Aduriz and Raul Garcia for this duel.

Probable lineups Athletic Bilbao: Arrizabalaga – de Marcos, Etxeita, I.Martinez, Lekue – San Jose, Iturraspe – M.Susaeta, Benat, Cordoba – Williams

Verdict:

Atletico plays very well again and now they are now certainly the favourites on their field against the unconvincing Athletic, which will also be weakend and thus hardly avoid defeat in this match.

Pick:  Asian Handicap -1.25 Atletico Madrid 1.98 - 98/100 @1XBet