Valencia and Atheltic Bilbao are set to trade tackles at the Estadio de Mestalla in a top-half La Liga showdown.
Valencia have undone their unbeaten four-game La Liga start to the season (W3, D1) with back-to-back defeats, including a 3-1 away thumping to Sevilla last time out. Seeking their first top-four finish in three years, ‘Los Murciélagos’ will look to respond against an Athletic side they’ve lost to just once in their previous nine top-flight H2Hs (W4, D4), though drawing both last season’s meetings. Jose Bordalas’ men have gone unbeaten in nine straight La Liga encounters against Basque opposition (W3, D5) since falling to a 2-0 defeat to Athletic at Mestalla in July 2020. If they fail to avoid a similar outcome here, Valencia will suffer three consecutive losses in La Liga for the first time in 2021, last experiencing such a feat in October 2020 under Javi Garcia.
Meanwhile, Rayo Vallecano’s last-gasp winner in the Basque country last time out inflicted the first La Liga defeat on Athletic Bilbao this season (W2, D3). Despite enjoying a decent league start, ‘Los Leones’ have been struggling in front of goal this term, netting an average of just 0.83 goals per La Liga fixture so far. Having that said, the visitors have scored precisely twice per game in three of their previous four top-flight visits to Mestalla (W1, D1, L1). Marcelino Garcia Toral’s men have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three top-flight trips (W1, D2) and could equal the club’s best-ever such run with another shutout here. The low-scoring theme has highlighted Bilbao’s recent away league matches, as each of the last eight has featured under 2.5 overall goals, with six seeing one or less, including all three this season.
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