Real Madrid – Athletic Bilbao. Alexander Vishnevskiy’s prediction

Easy times for Zinedine Zidane’s team are over and now they would face tougher challenges ahead: first it will be a game against Athletic Bilbao and then their next game against AS Roma in Champions league. I think that Zidane may rest some players for AS Roma. I saw Real Madrid in Granada and they were careless. Isco disappointed more than others with his turnovers and wrong passes which let Granada open with counterattacks. James Rodrigues was also in bad form. Gareth Bale is missing because of injury. More to say, Marcelo will miss three games and he is one of the key players of Real Madrid. Maybe Zidane will rest Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal who played the last game through the pain. No one can equally replace Modric and Carvajal in the squad.

So the upcoming game will not be a pleasure cruise for Real Madrid. We shouldn’t expect 5:0 as it was in their three previous home games under Zidane. Athletic Bilbao are different. They look better than before and they can offer a battle to the Royal club. My first idea was to bet on Athletic Bilbao with handicap +2 or +2.5, but the odds were too low. So we can go on a straight Real Madrid win but with little goal difference. I guess it will be under 4.5 goals here. I don’t think that Los Blancos would humiliate Athletic Bilbao. I expect 3:1 or 4:0 for Real Madrid who should reserve some power for the Champions league. This is more important than La Liga where Barcelona seem to be the first at the end of the season.