Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao are facing off at King Fahd Stadium in Saudi Arabia in the second semifinals matchup in the Spanish Super Cup. Atletico is a solid team with a solid offense, but their defense is not as good as it used to be. Bilbao is better defensively, but they don’t have as much offense, but they are playing well right now.
Atletico is now undefeated in their last 3 games, but they got lucky against Villarreal in LaLiga this past weekend. As far as the standings go, Atletico is now in 4th place with 33 points, they have scored 33 goals, but they have also conceded 24 goals. For this game, Atletico will be without Griezmann and Savic, but they still have a lot of great players available. As I’ve mentioned, Atletico’s defense is sloppy this season, they are conceding a lot, and they are not focused, and that is their only problem this season. yes, Atletico has one of the best goalkeepers in the world, but there is only so much he can do without proper support. I think Atletico is good enough to get a win here, but we will see if their defense can hold up.
Bilbao is also undefeated in their last 3 games, they have won 2 of those 3, while they lost only 1 of their last 5 games. In their last game against Alaves, Bilbao was a slightly better team, but they couldn’t score a goal, and the final result was 0-0. Thanks to this mini streak, Bilbao is now in 9th place in the standings, they are slowly improving, and if they can keep their defensive level this high, they might just get to the top 5. Bilbao does have a few injuries, but some of those players have been injured for a while, while the others are not among their best players. The biggest problem they have this season is the lack of offense, and even though they have a talented lineup with some great players, they are having a tough time finding a way to the net. The good news for Bilbao is there is no LaLiga this weekend, which means they don’t need to rest any of their players, they can go all out in this game, and they can be on their best to get to the finals.
This game is played on a neutral venue, which means neither team will have a home-field advantage. Atletico has more offense, but Bilbao is solid defensively, and I think they can get on the scoreboard here, at least once. I see at least 1 goal on each side.