Undefeated Atletico Madrid face a tough test on Wednesday as they visit Athletic Bilbao in LaLiga at San Mames Stadium. Last season Atletico Madrid secured a 2-2 victory at Bilbao before earning a 3-1 victory at home. Athletic Bilbao have not tasted victory against Atletico Madrid in ten games in all competitions, but Atletico always had difficult matches at Bilbao in recent years. However, overall Atletico have won eight of the last ten meetings with Athletic Bilbao in all competitions.
Athletic Bilbao had a very good start to the season until last weekend, they had two wins and a draw in LaLiga with no goals conceded, but then they surprisingly lost 1-0 at Las Palmas. They also had a good Europa League run so far, they went through two preliminary rounds without losing a game and started the group stage campaign with a goalless draw at Hertha Berlin. Aritz Aduriz, Benat and Iker Muniain were rested last weekend and now they should return to the starting eleven. Oscar de Marcos is still recovering from an ankle injury and might miss out again.
Atletico Madrid are unbeaten so far this season, with two wins and two draws in LaLiga and a good 0-0 draw at AS Roma in the Champions League last time out. Moreover, they had to play away from home in four of their five matches in all competitions so far. They only won one of those four away matches, but it's still a solid start. Last weekend they beat Malaga 1-0 in Madrid. Augusto Fernandez is still out injured, while Sime Vrsaljko and Jose Jimenez are fitness doubts ahead of Wednesday's match.
Probable line-ups:
Bilbao: Arrizabalaga - De Marcos, Etxeita, Laporte, Balenziaga - Jose, Etxebarria - Williams, Garcia, Muniain - Aduriz
Atletico: Oblak - Juanfran, Hernandez, Godin, Luis - Koke, Niguez, Partey, Carrasco - Griezmann, Correa
My prediction: 1-1 draw.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Bilbao win - 3.40
Draw - 3.20
Atletico win - 2.25
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