I trust in Espanyol here.

FIrst game for the new coach Luis Garcia after 4 consecutive defeats with the previous coach. The team has a lot of quality, especially upfront, but for some reason things didn't work well with the previous coach: mistakes in defense, lack of concentration in some actions, bad transfers at the beginning of the season.. But if Luis Garcia achieves to make the right changes, the team has quality to be near to the TOP10 with strikers like Joselu, Braithwaite or midfielder Darder.

They also made good transfers in the winter market such as goalkeeper Pacheco (previous goalkeepers were terrible) and midfielder Denis Suarez.

On the other hand, Athletic is in really bad form. They are playing really bad, especially in attack where they are lacking clarity and quality to convert the chances or domination they have sometimes, while their defense isn’t either very strong. They are coming from a very difficult match against Osasuna in the spanish Cup (½ finals second leg) where lost in the ET, playing a total of 120 minutes which were very difficult and also affected them due to the fact that have been defeated and lost the chance to play the final.

Coach Valverde said on Wednesday that several players ended up exhausted, some of them with small injuries, so surely for this match some of them won’t be at 100%.

Espanyol has much more motivation here. They need points because they are in relegation and have quality to be much above, have the new coach which surely will be a big boost, and are coming from 4 consecutive defeats which isn’t normal for them. Athletic has won just 2 of the last 8 official games played, and are in the worst moment of the season in attack, missing a lot of chances and with all strikers in bad form.

I see Espanyol totally able to avoid the defeat here, just being solid in defense, playing the game with high intensity, and avoiding mistakes in defense. Athletic will be tired and lacking motivation as they are also pretty far from Europe positions (7 points and rivals in much better form).

这场比赛我信任西班牙人。

在前任教练连续4次失利后，新教练路易斯加西亚的第一场比赛。这支球队有很多实力，尤其是前锋，但由于某些原因，前任教练的工作不太顺利：防守失误，某些动作注意力不集中，赛季初转会不顺利……但如果路易斯加西亚实现了正确的改变，球队有能力接近TOP10，拥有像Joselu，Braithwaite或中场Darder这样的前锋。

门将帕切科（之前的门将很烂）和中场丹尼斯-苏亚雷斯，他们在冬季转会市场上也有不错的转会。

另一方面，毕尔巴鄂竞技的状态非常糟糕。他们打得真的很糟糕，尤其是在进攻端，他们缺乏清晰度和质量来转化他们有时拥有的机会或统治力，而他们的防守也不是很强。他们来自西班牙杯中与奥萨苏纳的一场非常艰难的比赛（½ 决赛第二名）leg) 在加时赛中输了，总共打了 120 分钟，这非常困难，也因为被击败而失去了参加决赛的机会，这也影响了他们。

巴尔韦德教练周三表示，几名球员最终精疲力竭，其中一些人受了轻伤，所以这场比赛中他们中的一些人肯定不会达到 100%。

西班牙人有更多的动力。他们需要积分，因为他们处于降级阶段，而且质量要高得多，有新教练肯定会带来很大的推动力，而且他们已经连续 4 场失利，这对他们来说是不正常的。毕尔巴鄂竞技在过去的 8 场正式比赛中只赢了 2 场，并且正处于本赛季进攻最差的时刻，失去了很多机会，而且所有前锋的状态都很糟糕。

我认为西班牙人这里完全可以避免失利，只要防守稳固，比赛强度大，防守不失误就行。毕尔巴鄂竞技很累，缺乏动力，因为他们也远离欧洲的位置（7 分，对手的状态要好得多）。