Athletic Bilbao midfielder Raul Garcia. (Photo : Getty Images)
Middling team Athletic Bilbao (1-2-0, 3 points) and winless club Valencia CF (0-3-0, 0 points) are set to meet at the San Mamés Stadium on Sunday, Sep. 18 in a 2016-2017 La Liga season week 4 encounter.
Start Time and Streaming Info
The game starts at 10:15 a.m. ET. It can be viewed live online thru FuboTV.
Athletic Bilbao, last season's fifth-place finishers and a qualifier to the Europa League this term, opened their season on the wrong foot with two straight losses to Sporting Gijon and Barcelona.
However, head coach Ernesto Valverde's squad managed to pull off their first win of the season with a 1-0 nipping of Deportivo La Coruna on the road at the Estadio Municipal de Riazor last Sunday, via SkySports.
Spanish midfielder Raul Garcia netted the winning goal of the contest for Los Leones at the 41st minute as the two clubs struggled in offense all throughout the game.
The win managed to separate Athletic Club from the rest of the still winless teams in La Liga this term as they settled at the 14th spot of the league table.
Meanwhile, perennial favorites Valencia is one of only two clubs in the current Spanish top flight competitions who has yet to score a point in the overall standings.
Los Che is currently on a three-game losing slide as they opened their season with a 2-4 loss to Las Palmas before Eibar nipped them, 0-1, during the week 2 fixtures.
Head coach Pako Ayestarán's side is coming off a sorry 2-3 loss to middling squad Real Betis at their home ground of Mestalla Stadium last Sunday, as per Reuters.
After Betis forward Ruben Castro scored the first goal of the match at the 38th minute, Valencia team captain Enzo Perez was sent off at the 50th following his second yellow card in the game. Four minutes later, the lead was doubled by a goal from midfielder Joaquin
Valencia tried to fight back even at a man-down with two straight goals at the 75th and 78th minutes, courtesy of right winger Rodrigo and defender Ezequiel Garay respectively, leveling the count to 2-2.
However, the visitors found the winning goal in injury time with Castro's second goal of the game to snatch the win and three points from Els Taronges.
Prediction and Predicted Lineup
The predicted result is a 2-1 win for Athletic Bilbao.
Athletic Bilbao starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Arrizabalaga; de Marcos, Boveda, Laporte, Balenziaga; San Jose, Benat; Williams, Garcia, Muniain; Aduriz
Valencia starting lineup (5-3-2 formation): Alves; Cancelo, Garay, Mangala, Gaya; Parejo, Suarez, Bakkali; Rodrigo, Nani, Mina
