The first game of the seventh round of the 2022/23 La Liga season will see Athletic Bilbao welcome Almeria to Estadio San Mamés (Bilbao)
Venue: Estadio San Mamés (Bilbao)
Key Statistics
Athletic Bilbao have scored eleven goals in their last four games.
The hosts have conceded only four goals in the league this season. Only Barcelona (1) and Villareal (2) have conceded fewer goals this season.
Only Real Madrid (17) and Barcelona (18) have scored more goals than Bilbao (12).
Athletic Bilbao have kept five clean sheets in their last ten home matches
Almería’s games produced fewer average total goals (1.83) than those involving any other single club in the first six rounds.
The visitors have failed to score in their last three games.
They have scored four goals this season but have conceded only seven.
Head to head
In 12 meetings between both sides, Athletic Bilbao have seven wins while Almeria have two wins.
Latest performances in all competitions
Athletic Bilbao: W-W-L-W-W
Almeria: L-L-L-W-D
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Bilbao will look to continue their impressive start to the new season when they welcome newly-promoted Almeria to Bilboa this Friday.
The hosts under the management of former Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde have enjoyed a successful start to the new season, with four wins in six league games played so far (D1, L1).
The only team that has defeated them this season is Espanyol (1-0) while they also failed to score in their game against Real Mallorca (0-0). But aside from those two games, they have recorded four impressive wins while scoring 3+ goals in three of those wins.
Coach Valverde is embodying his own philosophy that “there will always be one chance and then one more” and will hope that his side can repeat their impressive showing against Rayo Vallecano last time out that saw Iñaki and Nico Williams becoming the first pair of brothers since Espanyol’s Diego and Gabriel Milito in 2005 to score in the same league match.
The Basque club are currently sitting in fourth position and will be desperate to maintain their place within the top four as they look to get back to the UCL for the first time since the 2014/2015 season.
Possible Bilbao starting line-up
Unai Simon; Oscar de Marcos, Yeray Alvarez, Inigo Martinez, Inigo Lekue; Dani Garcia, Oihan Sancet, Nico Williams, Iker Mûnein, Raul Garcia, Inaki Williams.
Injured: Julen Agirrezabala, Daniel Vivian, Yuri Berchiche, Mikel Balenziaga, Mikel Vesga
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Almeria
Almeria will look to end a run of three consecutive losses when they travel to San Mames on Friday.
Since recording their first win of the season against Sevilla (2-1), the La Liga newbies have endured a miserable run of results, losing three games in a row to fellow relegation contenders while failing to score in each of those games.
However, these losses were all narrow 1-0 losses, showing that Rubi’s side are not entirely bad. They have struggled to get goals since the departure of last season’s top scorer Umar Sadiq.
Manager Rubi will now hope that having enjoyed some extended time on the training pitch with most of his squad during the international break, his side can spring another surprise in this game as they did against Sevilla in round three.
Possible Almeria starting line-up
Fernando Martinez; Alejandro Pozo, Chumi, Srdjan Babic, Rodrigo Ely, Sergio Akieme; Samu Costa, Lucas Robertone,El Bilal Toure; Lergie Ramezani, Lozaro.
Injured: Cesar de La Hoz, Alex Centelles
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Prediction
Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Almeria
