This evening Real Madrid will be visiting Athletic Bilbao at at the San Mames in Bilbao for a mid-week Laliga game. Madrid will be looking to build form after having only won 2 games from their last 5 played in the league and drawing their last 3. On top of that the pressure seems to be building now that Barcelona have overtaken them in the league. A loss tonight would mean the Blaugrana would be 4 points clear. Whilst Xabi Alonso’s men find themselves in second with both Villarreal and city-rivals Atletico Madrid breathing down their neck.
Problems across the pitch
Xabi Alonso’s squad has been forced to deal with injuries throughout this campaign. The Madrid defence has looked shaky for periods this season being forced to do without experienced players such as captain Dani Carvajal, Antonio Rüdiger, Eder Militao and most recently new arrival Dean Huijsen have all found them self sidelined because of injury.
Even though Kylian Mbappé is leading the Laliga scoring charts with 14 goals in 14 matches the Madrid attack has looked toothless at times. Whilst the French international is leading his team with 23 goals in all competitions this season the rest of Madrid’s attackers seem to be struggling Vinicius Jr.-who is second in scoring for Madrid this season.- has only scored 5 and has been unable to find the back of the net for the last 9 matches, whilst Jude Bellingham who is in 3rd has only been able to score 4.
These became ever evident in their recent visits to Girona and Elche. Both teams find themselves in the bottom-half of the league table with Girona in danger of relegation at 18th. Against Elche Xabi Alonso decided to change his teams formation and line up with five at the back. Despite this more defensive approach Elche managed to score twice almost taking home 3 points if it hadn’t been for a late Bellingham goal. Against Girona their struggles seemed to continue. With Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois putting in a stunning performance to save a point and prevent Girona from sending Madrid home empty-handed. So now the question remains, will Real Madrid be able to beat Bilbao tonight?
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