Real Sociedad vs Ath Bilbao prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2023-09-29 19:00.
Only two points separate Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao in the La Liga (LL) standings, but the pair’s fortunes in midweek were rather different. Sociedad inched past a ten-man Valencia 1-0 on Wednesday, and after boss Imanol Alguacil spoke about his players having both “physical and mental fatigue” in the wake of their midweek runout, this Basque Derby perhaps arrives at an inopportune time.
The form book wouldn’t suggest that, with Sociedad registering on-back-to-back league wins, but with the return of the UEFA Champions League lurking in the wake of this fixture, Sociedad’s schedule is a bit of a problem for Alguacil. Whether he shuffles the pack or not remains to be seen, but with a 13 match unbeaten LL home run on the line (W8, D5), as well as local bragging rights, rotation here may not be a wise move.
While Sociedad played out a full half against ten-men in midweek, Athletic were forced to play out the whole second half a man light in their 2-2 draw against Getafe. Even still, it could’ve been a whole lot better for Athletic, who twice took the lead but in the end were forced to settle for what boss Ernesto Valverde described as an “important point”.
It’s easy to see where he’s coming from too, as that result did in fact extend Athletic’s unbeaten league run to six matches since an opening day loss (W4, D2), with four of those seeing the interesting quirk of the away side on the day scoring exactly twice. But that’s something Athletic haven’t done in away an H2H since March 2017, scoring exactly once across all six games of their current winless competitive run at this ground (D2, L4).
Players to watch: Expect a fast start from Takefusa Kubo, who has opened the scoring inside ten minutes in three of Sociedad’s last four home league games. Iñaki Williams' midweek goal may have been in vain as far as securing three points was concerned, but it did at least stretch his scoring run to three successive matches.
Hot stat: Five of Athletic’s last seven LL away games saw exactly two total match goals.