Granada vs Athletic Club 12/09/20

12 September 2020

In a repeat of last season’s finale, Granada welcome Athletic Club to the Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes on the opening matchday of the 2020/21 La Liga season. The hosts ran out 4-0 victors in the abovementioned fixture.

Granada had been by far the most exciting Spanish side to watch down the final stretch of the last season. Indeed, eight of their 11 La Liga games since the resumption of football in June have featured over 2.5 goals, with seven seeing both teams on the scoresheet. Yet, Granada’s top-flight home matches this calendar year have been notably tight, as nine of ten have ended separating the sides by under 1.5 goals (W5, D2, L3). The ‘clean-sheet’ theme remains quite significant too, given four of their last five La Liga H2Hs held at this venue have seen at least one side draw a blank (W3, D1, L1).

Meanwhile, Athletic Bilbao finished the 2019/20 season with a whimper rather than a bang, losing four of their last five league matches (W1), three of which saw them draw a blank and concede at least once beyond the 70-minute mark. Also, the Basque side have endured mixed fortunes away from home this calendar year, winning just three of ten top-flight trips since the turn of 2020 (D3, L4). The ‘both-teams-to-score’ theme has highlighted that sequence, though, with seven of those ten encounters seeing both sides get on the scoresheet. Despite suffering a horror defeat in their last top-flight H2H, Gaizka Garitano can still draw on the fact his team had won three consecutive such match-ups prior.