AS Roma vs Athletic Bilbao 08/08/19

8 August 2019

The in-form AS Roma side take on Athletic Bilbao at the Stadio Renato Curi for their penultimate summer friendly, looking to stretch their winning run to six games.

Roma’s run of impressive form under the new boss Paulo Fonseca has started to gather momentum. The Serie A giants have not only secured four wins in as many pre-season outings, but they’ve also scored three or more goals per match each time, keeping a clean sheet once though. Interestingly, all of those friendlies have featured goals in both halves, with the Giallorossi trailing at the break twice in the process. It is, however, fair to say that three of Roma’s previous four rivals come from the Italian lower divisions, with Lille being their only high-profile opponent so far this summer. Nonetheless, Roma’s stubborn defense has prevented their rivals from scoring more than one goal per match in 11 of their last 12 games.

Meanwhile, the Basque-based side go into this clash off the back of a 2-1 away loss to Racing Santander that has brought their five-game unbeaten run to an end (W2, D3). Notably, five of Bilbao’s six summer friendlies have seen both teams score while four of them featured over 2.5 goals. Also, Los Leones have come off better in both of their high-profile pre-season encounters with West Ham United and Borussia Monchengladbach, scoring precisely two goals per match on both occasions. However, only one clean sheet in the last ten matches indicates Gaizka Garitano’s men may have problems denying Roma’s prolific attack from finding the net.