Athletic Club vs Real Madrid: Three key battles to watch out for | OneFootball

Despite their struggles in the UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid are still having a rather good La Liga campaign in which they have only lost to FC Barcelona in their 14 matches up to now.

Following their defeat in the last El Clasico, it was looking like the Blaugranes would run away with the La Liga title this season. However, Real Madrid have put in some convincing performances against the likes of Osasuna, Leganes, and Getafe, which allowed them to take advantage of Barcelona’s dip in form to come within touching distance of the top position in the La Liga table.

In fact, Los Blancos can topple the Catalans if they win their two games in hand, against Athletic Club and Valencia. Tonight, they will be playing one of these two games, against Athletic Club, and naturally, will be looking to get a victory in this game to further cut to size Barcelona’s lead at the top.

However, getting a win in this match will not really be easy for Carlo Ancelotti’s side, as Ernesto Valverde will be taking a well-drilled team to host the Merengues in this game. With both sides coming into this game with good form, there will be several encounters to keep an eye on. The three most engaging of these encounters will be:

Inaki Williams vs Fran Garcia

As has been the case for the last few years, Inaki Williams still remains one of the most threatening players in the Athletic Club frontline. The Ghanaian international has scored 5 goals and provided 4 assists in all competitions this season, with 3 of these goals and all 4 of these assists coming in La Liga.

He remains a highly dangerous attacker with his pace and explosiveness, and with these strengths, he will put up a significant test for the Real Madrid fullback Fran Garcia, who has been the better left-back for his team than Ferland Mendy this season and is likely to get another start in this game.

The Spanish defender is not as adept a defender as Ferland Mendy, but he has put in very encouraging performances lately, and will once again be looking to keep a winger as dangerous as Inaki Williams in control in this game.

Nico Williams vs Lucas Vazquez

It will be a similar story on the opposite wing, as Inaki’s brother, Nico, will be looking to get the best of Lucas Vazquez. In recent years, Nico has emerged as one of the stars of La Liga, and his speed, dribbling, and playmaking abilities were on clear display in the last UEFA EURO 2024 which he won with his Spanish national team.

Tonight, he will be facing one of his compatriots who had missed out on the Spanish squad for this competition, despite having won the La Liga and the UEFA Champions League titles last season, i.e., Lucas Vazquez. In Dani Carvajal’s absence, he is the next in line to start at the right-back position.

Vazquez has struggled when facing tricky and pacy wingers this season, most clearly in the games against Barcelona and AC Milan, and it will once again be a stern test for him as he faces off against Nico Williams tonight.

Kylian Mbappe vs Daniel Vivian

The French superstar is still not back to his best level, but his performance in the game against Getafe was significantly better than the one against Liverpool. The Real Madrid forward got on the scoresheet in that game and was also selected as the Man of the Match.

He will definitely be looking to build up on that encouraging performance, but he will face a significant barrier as opposing him will be a very good defender, Daniel Vivian. The Spaniard gets dribbled past only 0.3 times every game, and recovers 5.4 balls on average, and getting past him will not really be easy, even for a forward as good as Mbappe.