Espanyol welcomes Athletic Bilbao

Espanyol welcomes Athletic Bilbao in Barcelona in a game from the 21th round of La Liga. That’s a pretty good opportunity to offer you our La Liga predictions for the day.

So far it’s a nightmare of a season for Espanyol. The Catalans continue to be 20th in the league with just 14 points won, locked in a race for survival. At this moment Los Perricos are four points behind the 17th Mallorca and the safe zone, so they have some work to do.

The good news for Espanyol is that the team won four points in two matches since the arrival of the new manager Abelardo. After the draw against Barcelona, Espanyol celebrated their just third win for the season. Last week Los Perricos visited Villarreal and celebrated a 2-1 win. David Lopez and Raul de Tomas scored for the visitors. The bad news for the Catalans came from the red card of Javi Lopez, who won’t be avaliable for the next match.

Athletic Bilbao are doing much better in the league as they are 8th in the standings with 30 points. The Basques are just one point behind Real Sociedad and the Top 6, so surely they will look for the win in Barcelona on Saturday. Bilbao are motivated to reach the European competitions this season.

What’s really interesting about Athletic is that right now they are in a run of four consecutive draws in La Liga. They have made 9 draws total in the league this season. Only two teams ina La Liga have made more draws since the start of the campaign – Osasuna and Real Valladolid. Will this visit to Barcelona be a fifth consecutive draw for the Basques?

That’s our La Liga predictions for the game between Espanyol and Athletic Bilbao on Saturday. Be careful with Espanyol, because they are looking better since the arrival of Abelardo. The Catalans are still unbeaten with their new manager.