Athletic Bilbao vs Real Madrid Preview

Julen Lopetegui will have a tough time this weekend when he takes his star-studded Real Madrid team to the San Mames – a stadium where they are never welcome and a stadium where many teams struggle to get a result.

Los Blancos last two games have ended in 4-1 wins, and despite earlier fears that they would struggle to score goals without Cristiano Ronaldo, they have looked fruitful in front of goal.

Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema have given their fans reasons to forget about Ronaldo as they have scored 70 percent of Madrid’s goals so far combined.

Bale in particular looks to be in fine form, and he has netted in every one of his last seven league games for the European champions.

Athletic are coming into this as if it was a new season as it has been three weeks since they last played competitive football.

This is because their game against Rayo Vallecano was postponed due to stadium problems.

This early season break is not ideal for Bilbao and they may show signs of lacking match sharpness when they take to the field in this game.

The last time they played in the league, they were surprisingly held to a 2-2 draw by new boys Huesca so this game is a big one for them if they want to make a good start to the season.

The two meetings last season were both drawn with the San Mames fixture ending goalless.

The last 6 meetings in Bilbao have produced 3 Real wins, 2 draws and 1 Athletic win.

Bookmakers have priced Real Madrid up as strong odds-on favourites to come out on top while goal markets suggest this game will provide a feast of goals for neutrals and fans alike.

Results of each team’s last 5 matches across all leagues and competitions

Athletic Bilbao

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
D	Athletic Bilbao		2-2		Huesca	27 Aug, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Athletic Bilbao		2-1		Leganes	20 Aug, 2018	Spanish Primera División
L	Hannover 96		2-0		Athletic Bilbao	11 Aug, 2018	Friendly
L	Athletic Bilbao		0-1		Espanyol	20 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División
L	Alavés		3-1		Athletic Bilbao	12 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División

Real Madrid

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
W	Real Madrid		4-1		Leganes	1 Sep, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Girona		1-4		Real Madrid	26 Aug, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Real Madrid		2-0		Getafe	19 Aug, 2018	Spanish Primera División
L	Real Madrid		2-4		Atletico Madrid	15 Aug, 2018	UEFA Super Cup
W	Real Madrid		3-1		AC Milan	11 Aug, 2018	Friendly

H2H

LAST FIVE GAMES					DATE	COMPETITION
Real Madrid		1-1		Athletic Bilbao	18 Apr, 2018	Spanish Primera División
Athletic Bilbao		0-0		Real Madrid	2 Dec, 2017	Spanish Primera División
Athletic Bilbao		1-2		Real Madrid	18 Mar, 2017	Spanish Primera División
Real Madrid		2-1		Athletic Bilbao	23 Oct, 2016	Spanish Primera División
Real Madrid		4-2		Athletic Bilbao	13 Feb, 2016	Spanish Primera División

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Spanish Primera:

Spanish Primera Table

Spanish Primera Results