Athletic – Barcelona. Forecast and announcement for the 1/2 final match of the Spanish Super Cup

On January 8, “King Abdullah Sports City” (Jeddah) will host the semi-final match of the Spanish Super Cup, in which “Athletic” will meet “Barcelona”. The match will start at 21:00 Kyiv time.

Athletic

Since 2022, the team is again playing under the leadership of Valverde. At first, Ernesto’s new tenure in Bilbao did not produce the expected progress, although the Basques were added immediately. But then there was last year’s triumph, when it was possible to win the first cup in 40 years, and in the Primera then the club finished in 5th position. Moreover, even now it is possible not to slow down the turnover. The return to the Europa League turned out to be successful, in 6 matches of 2024, it brought an away draw with Roma and 5 victories. In Primera, Athletic collected 10 victories and 36 points – only the top three giants showed themselves better in 2024. The new calendar year began with a cup match with UD Logroños. And they passed it only on penalty kicks, after a scoreless draw in game time.

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Barcelona

The club was left without trophies again last season. In the end, Lopetegui, after thinking it over, still fired Xavi, although he refused the promise made in the winter that he would leave the post in the summer. In the end, Flik became the coach, and it seemed that it was a hit in the top ten. Especially after the Blue Garnets defeated Bayern and Real Madrid, and in Madrid. But then there was a sharp decline, and if the situation was quickly stabilized in the Champions League, the Catalans frankly deflated in the Primera Division, showing statistics at the outsider level since November: only 1 win and 5 points in 7 rounds. At the same time, the club lost to not the strongest opponents – Real Sociedad, Las Palmas, Leganes (and the latter at home), and after 1:2 with Atlético, they gave it the lead. In January, in the cup with Barbastro, of course, they played their hearts out, won 4:0 – but the opponent was very weak there. Also, the situation around Dana Olmo, according to insiders, is not easily experienced in the locker room – the players do not understand why Laporta refused to register.

Statistics of personal meetings

In the last three El Clasico games, they won against the Basques only once, in August.

Forecast

Bookmakers are waiting for the victory of the blue and garnets, but it seems that they are clearly out of shape. We expect that Valverde’s wards will not lose (coefficient – 1.99).