La Liga Tips: Back Inaki Williams to steer Athletic victory against Valladolid | OneFootball

Spanish LaLiga

San Mames has been a fortress for Athletic this season

Jamie Kemp returns to preview three fixtures across the weekend slate in La Liga, and is backing Athletic Bilbao and Inaki Williams to handily take care of Real Valladolid...

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Back Matheus Cunha to have one or more shots on the target when Wolverhampton Wanderers travel to Bournemouth on Saturday at the super-boosted price of 1/1 from 1/2.

The Cherries are 12 places above Wolves in the Premier League but the Brazilian has been a big threat for the visitors all season, with 14 shots on target in his last six matches. With 30 this season, Cunha is in the top five players in the Premier League for shots on target and averages 1.5 every 90 minutes.

Las Palmas v Barcelona - Sat, 20:00

After recording an historic victory in this season's reverse fixture in Barcelona, Las Palmas have the chance to record a league double over the Catalans for the first time in their history. But the chances of lightning striking twice? Unlikely.

At the time of their win in Barcelona back in November, Las Palmas were riding a supreme manager bounce under Diego Martinez. His arrival had spelled the end of a miserable run of form, all of a sudden producing a raft of victories to guide them away from the relegation zone. Since then, however, the Canary Islanders have come firmly back to earth, with their frankly unsustainable run of results coming back in line with their increasingly average performances.

Diego Martinez's side rank 19th in La Liga for expected goal difference this term (-22.1), and are now only marginally ahead of bottom side Valladolid (-22.8), owing to their performances taking a pretty miserable turn after some brief flickers of an upturn when he took over.

Meanwhile, Barcelona seem to have recovered from their mid-season stumble that included defeat to Las Palmas. For many onlookers, Flick's side have been the best performances in La Liga right throughout the season, and it's an opinion backed up by Atletico manager Diego Simeone, who maintained they were the side who've impressed him most - even when Real Madrid had a decent-sized gap at the top.

It's likely that Barcelona will rest a couple of players for Saturday's game, given that they've got a big Copa del Rey semi-final game taking place on Tuesday. I don't expect that to alter the result all that much, though. Flick's side are an attacking juggernaut who seem able to carry over their performance even with rotation factored in, even if they don't always look that stable defensively in the process.

Against a team who are falling back into the clutches of the relegation zone, with their performances seemingly getting worse than stabilising, I'll take Barcelona to win and 2+ shots on target for Lamine Yamal. The teenage star is on a run of 11 straight appearances with at least one attempt on target, and he's had 45 in 32 games overall this term.

Athletic Bilbao v Real Valladolid - Sun, 13:00

It looks a question of when - not if - Real Valladolid will be heading back to Spain's second tier. Even with this week's sacking of Diego Cocca, marking their absolute last roll of the dice to spark something, the chances of them doing so seem very remote.

At the very least, you wouldn't want to be the guy taking charge of his first Valladolid game at San Mames - one of the hardest places to play in all of Spain. Ernesto Valverde's side will be annoyed with themselves for not bringing back all three points from Espanyol last week, and a home game against bottom of the league represents a good chance for them to get back on their feet in the top four race (and possibly even the title).

Assuming Valverde doesn't enforce mass rotation, which seems unlikely with no midweek game to follow, this should be a pretty safe Athletic win. They've only lost once at home in La Liga this season (W7 D4 L1), and that was a stoppage time defeat to an Atletico Madrid team who had just complete the ultimate smash-and-grab. Valladolid, meanwhile, have lost 11 of their 12 away games in the league this term, shipping 33 goals and only netting eight times themselves.

For an away side in the midst of another managerial change, the preparedness required to be able to go to San Mames with a solid game plan and then bring it to life looks like it'll be severely lacking. And with all the new players that arrived in January, now suddenly having to take instructions from a new manager, it all just looks like a bad set of circumstances for the visitors.

I'll take Athletic to win to nil, along with a goal or assist anytime for Inaki Williams. While his brother Nico is going to be a game-time call to play given a recent injury, Inaki is a constant in a side who pride themselves on not taking any opponent lightly. His seven assists this season are already his most in a La Liga campaign, and he's scored or assisted in two of his last three at San Mames.

Real Madrid v Girona - Sun, 15:15

Convincingly eliminating Manchester City and Pep Guardiola from the Champions League, with your star striker netting a hat-trick, has made this a pretty good week (to say the least) for Real Madrid. Indeed, it was very arguably their best performance of the season so far.

With Kylian Mbappe now firmly onside and becoming a hero at the Bernabeu, this doesn't look like a great time to be making the trip to the capital for Girona. Between Madrid's devastating performance last time out and their necessity to not drop any points in the title race, the home side should have their fangs showing here.

That's bad news for a Girona side who aren't having a great time of it this season, and who were handily beaten in this exact fixture last term (4-0), when they were a much stronger force than they are now. Michel's side have lost each of their last two, and are facing the prospect of three straight defeats in La Liga for the first time since October 2022 (the only previous time it's happened under him).

After seeing a raft of star players picked off in the summer, Girona just haven't shown they can be more than a mid-table side in terms of consistency. The types of players they've lost has been crucial, too, especially when games against the big sides like Real Madrid come around. Where last term they'd have had the searing pace of Savinho and Yan Couto to haul them up the pitch when they're on the back foot, as well as a dominant centre forward in Artem Dovbyk, their current weapons are much less threatening - especially in difficult away games.

Girona have won just three of their 12 matches on the road in La Liga this season (D3 L6), scoring just 10 goals in total. They just don't have the attacking punch to worry a team like Real Madrid in the current form.

Overall, I'll opt for Rodrygo to score anytime. The Brazilian was sensational against Manchester City in midweek, leading Jude Bellingham to described him as the team's "most gifted" player. He's netted four goals in his last five starts at the Bernabeu, and came close versus the Citizens too.

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