The most interesting match of the round in Spanish La Liga will see wounded Real Madrid play host to high-flying Athletic Bilbao. Los Merengues are looking to make amends for yet another El Clasico defeat, whereas los Leones are eager to continue the rich vein of form.

No way to stop Barca

Real Madrid have been absolutely brilliant in most of the games this season and everyone can see that they are playing better than last term, but los Blancos cannot be content with what they’ve done so far, considering that they have lost three out of four clashes against their bitter rivals. No matter how well Jose Mourinho’s side play, they cannot seem to come even close to matching Barca and that remains a big problem. Nevertheless, Real Madrid cannot afford to look back on yet another El Clasico defeat seeing that they have a five-point advantage to defend, and facing one of the in-form sides of the league will not be an easy task. Los Blancos are obviously expected to continue their impressive scoring form, but given that their back line looked pathetic against Barca, they cannot be trusted to keep a clean sheet against a side that boast players like Llorente, Muniain, Susaeta and De Marcos.

Pepe is out of the squad for two weeks, whereas Angel Di Maria and Sami Khedira remain sidelined.

Can Athletic do a favour to Barcelona?

Following an impressive last season under Joaquin Caparros, many football pundits were surprised by club’s decision to replace the talented coach with old wolf Marcelo Bielsa, but the Bilbao chiefs just couldn’t resist the temptation to sign such a high-profile boss. Even if the Argentine coach had some problems at the start of his career at San Mames, he quickly got the team playing to their full potential, making Athletic one of the most feared opponents in La Liga. Thanks to his controversial decision not to deploy a rotation policy despite the hectic schedule in the first part of the season, Bielsa helped the team find their form much sooner than expected and los Leones have been in scintillating form of late. Bilbao are currently on a seven-match unbeaten run and managed to keep six straight clean sheets, so they could be forgiven for feeling optimistic ahead of the clash at Santiago Bernabeu.

Inigo Perez is set to replace suspended Aurtenetxe, whereas Andoni Iraola is set to start after recovering from a bout of flu.

Verdict

Real Madrid desperately need a morale-boosting victory in order to recover from the El Clasico defeat and they are set to go all guns blazing at their opponents. Athletic Bilbao are flying high after the impressive run of results and they are very dangerous on the break, so both teams to score looks like a good choice here.

Our prediction: Both teams to score

Odds: 1.91 (10/11)

Bookmaker: Stan James