San Mamés, the Toughest Away Game Remaining this Season

Real Madrid faced in the first half of the season Sevilla, Atlético de Madrid, Valencia and FC Barcelona on the road. In these first weeks of the second half of the season, they also travelled to Villarreal, so the most difficult stadium left is San Mamés, the next fixture for Los Blancos.

Apart from the historic rivalry between Real Madrid and Athletic Club, San Mamés is even tougher this season. The Basque Country team has only lost one game this season in their venue, against FC Barcelona in the first week of La Liga. They haven’t lost in the Europa League, La Liga or Copa del Rey since then. Actually, Athletic Club is the best team at home in La Liga, only behind Real Madrid.

For this reason, the clash on Saturday would be a tough one. After defeating Betis and getting on the top of the table again, Los Blancos need to win to arrive to the international break week with some points more than FC Barcelona. Besides, Zidane will have available all the squad, except Raphael Varane. After giving some rest to important players, at San Mamés, Bale, Cristiano, Benzema or Casemiro should be on the pitch again.

Last season, Real Madrid won at San Mamés with Karim Benzema scoring a brace. Two season ago, the victory was for Athletic, thanks to the net scored by Aduriz. And in the season 2012/13, we saw a draw (1-1) with Jesé scoring for Los Blancos. That was the game in which Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off.

After the game in Bilbao, Real Madrid will have left Leganés, Gijón, La Coruña, Granada and Málaga on the road. These are all team of the bottom half of the table. We have to add the game against Celta Vigo, postponed for the bad weather in February.

So La Liga title will be decided at Santiago Bernabéu. Los Blancos will welcome Sevilla, Valencia, Atlético de Madrid and FC Barcelona in their stadium. Although the way of playing hasn’t been satisfactory at home, Los Blancos are getting the points and they haven’t lost yet in La Liga or the Champions League this season. Only Celta Vigo were able to beat them in Copa del Rey.