07/05/2020 - 7:00
- Clarín.com
- sports
Real Madrid visits Athletic Bilbao with the tranquility of the four points advantage that it has over Barcelona , its immediate pursuer in the Santander League of Spain.
Although he has this margin, this Sunday he faces one of the riskiest matches until the end of the championship, since the Basques are in clear improvement and with chances of accessing the next edition of the Europa League.
With a plenary session in the six games he has played since the resumption of competition, Real Madrid is on track to win the Spanish title after three years , since in the last two editions it had been in the hands of Barcelona .
Toni Kroos, against Athletic Bilbao, at the Santiago Bernabéu. (Photo: AP / Paul White).
The team led by Zinedine Zidane won all the games played after overcoming the most difficult part of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain. They went 3 to 1 to Eibar, 3 to 0 to Valencia, 2 to 1 to Real Sociedad, 2 to 0 to Mallorca, 1 to 0 to Espanyol and 1 to 0 to Getafe.
Those 18 points contrasted with the 12 achieved by Barcelona, also undefeated in this period but with three wins and three draws , a difference that allowed the Merengues to get Barça four points ahead, when in the resumption of the League they were second, two units behind the Catalan set.
Lack of brilliance or excess, and even with arbitration controversies due to the way he was favored in some matches, Real Madrid continued on its way far from listening to criticism or becoming controversial, while in Barcelona a crisis broke out not only that it even put Doubt the continuity of Lionel Messi from 2021.
Zinedine Zidane gives directions to Isco, of very weak level and excluded in the visit to San Mamés. (EFE)
Ahead of the end of the League, Zidane's team has a somewhat more complicated a priori fixture than Barça .
The madridistas have commitments against Bilbao (visitor), Alavés (home), Granada (visitor), Villarreal (home) and Leganés (visitor).
The Catalans, meanwhile, must play against Villarreal (visitor), Espanyol (home), Valladolid (visitor), Osasuna (home) and Alavés (visitor).
🤜🤛 Ready for tomorrow! #RMCity #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/g6pMFdNV98
- Real Madrid CF⚽ (@realmadrid) July 4, 2020Athletic de Bilbao suffered only one defeat since the return of the League, against Barcelona at Camp Nou and 1-0 (Ivan Rakitic's goal), but recorded three victories (1-0 at Betis, 3-1 at Mallorca and 2 to 0 to Valencia) and two draws (1 to 1 against Atlético de Madrid and 2 to 2 with Eibar).
With those 11 points, he climbed two positions in the table (from the tenth to the eighth) and was just two units behind Real Sociedad, the last team that is currently achieving qualification for the next Europa League.
These two Basque clubs will be the protagonists of the Copa del Rey final, whose date and location have not yet been defined.
Zidane will not be able to count on Eden Hazard again due to an ankle injury, which had already marginalized him against Getafe. Neither will Raphael Varane (cervicalgia) nor Nacho Fernández, so the Frenchman will put Militao as Sergio Ramos' partner and will rotate on the left wing with the entry of Marcelo.
Possible formations
The 11 of Athletic Bilbao : Unai Simón; Ander Capa, Yeray Alvarez, Iñigo Martínez, Yuri; Dani García, Unai López; Iñaki Williams, Iker Muniain, Iñigo Córdoba; Raúl García. DT Gaizka Garitano.
The 11 of Real Madrid : Thibaut Courtois; Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo; Casemiro, Federico Valverde, Toni Kroos; Luka Modric or Rodrygo, Vinicius and Karim Benzema. DT : Zinedine Zidane.
Hours : 9.00 (Argentine time).
TV : ESPN 2.
Referee : José Luis González González
Stadium : Nuevo San Mamés.
