Valencia will face Athletic Bilbao at Estadio de Mestalla, in Valencia, at the 26th Round of Spanish LaLiga. Valencia against Athletic Bilbao is always the match with big interest especially during this season and LaLiga positions. Review our thoughts on this match here below.
Valencia
Valencia is looking very confident this season, especially at home ground. The club from Valencia likes to play defensive football this season and concede fewer goals. Los Ches continuing to fight in 3 competitions, as they won semi-final in Copa del Rey and in Final will face Barcelona. Moreover, in UEFA Europa League they won against Celtic in both legs without conceding any goal and preparing to meet with Krasnodar in 1/8 Final. This season home team lost at Estadio de Mestalla only once against Girona in fully controlled game. Furthermore, they have a problem playing in draws, as they won only 3 games at home and played 9 times in a draw. They have drawn 4 of their 5 last matches, even playing against Barcelona at Camp Nou.
All except E. Garay are fit and ready to face Bilbao in an important match. Daniel Parejo is playing at a leading position with most scored goals and one of the best assisters in the team. Valencia is great at counter attacks, attacking set pieces and creating scoring chances. However, they are showing weaknesses at finishing scoring chances, defending against long shots and against skillful players. Very likely that at home they will attack through the middle, take a lot of shots and rotate their first eleven. In 7 last matches in all competitions, they conceded only 1 goal. On average the Bats scores 1 goal per game, pass with 79.9% accuracy and shoots 13.8 times per match.
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Bilbao started the season very badly, however, now they gained great form. They collected 19 points in the last 10 matches, what is 4th result in all LaLiga. In the last 10 matches in LaLiga, they lost only once against Real Sociedad in away match and won 5 games. Now they have equal points with Valencia and this fight should be very important for them as they stand at 10th position. Athletic now is continuing to play only in Spanish highest league, so they need to fully concentrate on going further in the table and take advantage. In the last 8 matches in different competitions, they played only once a resultative match and conceded only 2 goals. That means this team likes to play defensively too as their opponents. So far, the team has a chance to compete for getting into European cups.
Unfortunately, next match for sure will miss Artiz Aduriz, the leader of the team due to injury. All other main squad players are fit and ready to fight the neighbors of the table. They are great at aerial duels and counter attacks. However, they are facing troubles with defending against long shots and protecting the lead. Very likely that they will play width and aggressive football. On average team scores 1 goal per match, pass with 77% accuracy and shoots 10.6 times per game.
H2H
Since the 2013/14 season home team lost only once. The last match between these teams finished with 0:0 result. Valencia won 2 of 5 last matches, Athletic won only once. Since the year 1999, these teams played 21 times and lost at home only twice.
Article Image Taken from https://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/14922/nairabet/2016/03/17/21418422/valencia-athletic-bilbao-betting-back-aduriz-to-score