Athletic Club v Sevilla Preview – Saturday 2pm GolTV

By: Anthony | February 28th, 2009

First off I’d like to apologize for my lack of posting during the past week but considering we aren’t in the Champions League or UEFA Cup there hasn’t been much going on in Nervión that has been worth talking about.

Tomorrow however there is definitely something worth talking about as we travel to San Mamés to take on Athletic Bilbao. We resume league play after last week’s beautiful win over Atlético Madrid at home to someone cement ourselves in a Champions League spot.

This round however is going to be just as tricky as it will be the first of two encounters with the Basque side in less than a week – tomorrow in the league and Wednesday in the Copa.

In the reverse fixture we smashed them 4-0 at home but this time around of course its going to be much more difficult as we both have a lot to play for, and not to mention the resurgence of Joaquín Caparros’ men in recent times. The Copa del Rey is the only thing either team has a decent chance of winning considering we crashed out of the UEFA Cup to Sampdoria and Athletic are currently midtable and not in Europe. That being the case I think that both managers will also realize this and rest some of the bigger names tomorrow.

Jiménez being the conservative coach he is will probably field a strong midfield tomorrow rather than our favoured two-striker system and would rather go for the safe result as opposed to going all out for the kill.

Luis Fabiano and Koné are both back to full training after their serious knee problems but will not take part in tomorrow’s match and the same applies to Chevantón who last week was announced out for the season with a serious foot injury. Three of our four strikers will not take part meaning we will be extremely short up front. I can see Sevilla Atlético star Diego Perotti starting up top with “Big Fredi” considering he played extremely well last week and we do not have any other alternatives at the moment seeing as Renato is a poor excuse for a second striker, if this is not the case though then young Argentine Lautaro Acosta will definitely start up top. Escudé is also out on defense meaning Squillaci will probably partner David Prieto in the central roles with Mosquera and Adriano playing as the wing backs. Maresca is also apparently back to good fitness levels and may even get the start tomorrow in the midfield alongside either Romaric, Duscher or Renato.

I can’t really see this match being another 4-0 walloping either way and I have a feeling it will be pretty even for the most part with a 1-0 victory for either side looking pretty likely. It will more likely than not be a low scoring affair and if it does not go 1-0 either way it will be a draw with neither side really stamping their authority on the match.