Athletic Bilbao suffered a wretched start to the season despite brilliantly defeating Napoli to qualify for the Champions League group stages. In their first six League games Los Leones lost four times, drew once [against Basque rivals Eibar in a ill-tempered game] and won just once at home to Levante.
Their stuttering run of form left Athletic in 16th place and only above the relegation zone because of a superior goal difference. It seemed the club were struggling to juggle a League campaign with the demands of playing in Europe’s premier club competition.
However, two months later the situation at San Mames is completely different. Losing 5-0 to Real Madrid allowed Coach Ernesto Valverde to use the heavy defeat as a clean slate so his players could restart the season and forget their early troubles.
Their recent run of form shows it has worked. In their last seven League games Athletic have won four, drawn three and lost once – in their last League fixture, where they surprisingly were beaten 1-0 at home at Cordoba.
When analysing those seven top-flight matches you can see how Athletic achieved some notable performances. Valverde’s men defeated Sevilla 1-0, who are challenging well for a Champions League spot, while also holding Valencia to a 0-0 draw at Estadio Mestalla. As a result the Basque outfit have crept up to 10th place, an excellent turnaround from two months ago.
In the Champions League Athletic made some improvement after losing two of their first three group matches. Though they weren’t able to progress to the next round their 2-0 victory against Bulgarian outfit BATE Borisov on Wednesday meant they would at least drop down to the Europa League ahead of BATE.
There are quite a few players in the team who have contributed to the club’s good run. Midfielder Benat is beginning to show some of the form that induced Athletic to pay €8m to prize him away from Real Betis 18 months ago.
But it is Aritz Aduriz who has been the star player of that run. The veteran striker has scored important goals for his club but also created goals for his teammates. In his last seven League games the 33-year-old has scored three goals and created two assists as well. It was his goal that defeated Sevilla in early November and without him Athletic would be toothless upfront.
Moreover, while the strikers have been amongst the goals, the defence, vitally, has stabilised over recent months. In their last seven League games the club have kept three clean sheets and two of those came against top opposition in Valencia and Sevilla. With veteran goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz providing assurance behind them the back four are starting to repeat the defensive prowess shown last season.
Valverde will be hoping their loss to Cordoba last week was a minor blip and they can finish the year at the top half of the table. Their next game will certainly provide inspiration for his all-Basque squad, as they travel to San Sebastian to face Real Sociedad in what will no doubt be a fiery Basque derby.
