On Friday evening, the meeting between Athletic Bilbao and Las Palmas will take place in the San Mames. Especially for visitors it is crucial to achieve a good result.

Athletic Bilbao lost 2-0 last weekend with PhD candidate Girona, ending a series of ten official games without defeat. Yet a defeat hung in the air for a while, because despite the nice results of the last weeks the game of the Basques was often not to be peeped. Therefore, coach Kuko Ziganda decided to switch from a 4-2-3-1 formation to 5-3-2 against Girona: ‘Everyone could see that it was no longer possible, I had to intervene. Despite the loss in and against Girona, I am confident that with the new system we will ultimately be better off. ‘

Athletic Bilbao puts the emphasis on the defense. In addition, Aritz Aduriz is in the forefront of Inaki Williams. The redwarts in Williams see the potential successor of the almost 37-year-old Aduriz, although he misses the nose for the goal in my eyes. Something that Aduriz has, of course, because this season, with eight league goals, he is again club top scorer on behalf of Los Leones. Together with Lionel Messi and Pablo Fornals he is nominated for best player in January. Anyway, Ziganda would like to continue experimenting with the 5-3-2 system, which makes the upcoming home game against Las Palmas even more important. Next week, the knockout match against the Russian Spartak Moscow in the Europa League is on the program. The Europa League is the only tournament that could still provide the disappointing season of Athletic Bilbao with a layer of shine.

Does Las Palmas have an escape a la Harry Houdini in store? The island club on Monday-evening won the relegation cracker against direct rival Malaga 1-0 thanks to a goal from substitute Alen Halilovic in the very last minute and is thus only three points away from the safe seventeenth place. ‘We are on the right track,’ says trainer Paco Jemez. Yet the yellow shirts about luck certainly did not have to complain. The defense remains a problem, even though Las Palmas had the luck this time that Malaga left two enormous opportunities unused. Everyone in the stadium already assumed a goalless draw, until Halilovic saw a chance to strike just before time. The Croat initially did not hit the pepernoot, but thanks to that goal he suddenly changed from schlemiel to hero.

The revolution at Las Palmas therefore yielded immediate results. Jemez won no less than eight new players this winter to the Estadio de Gran Canaria, five of which were directly at the base against Malaga. Anyway, all newcomers played a strong game, especially defender Alejandro Galvez and midfielder Oghenekaro Etebo will not relinquish their starting place soon. Incidentally, Jemez’s appetite for shopping came to him as well, because the coach would not pay enough attention to his own youth. In 2015, Las Palmas forced promotion to the highest level with no less than eighteen canteranos in the squad, but against Malaga, playmaker Jonathan Viera was the lone Canario in the basic eleven. Jemez does not, however, have a message: “I do not look at ages or where someone is born. I want eleven fighters, there is no room for such sentiments in the field. ‘ Big right, because at the moment, retention is the only thing that counts.

PREDICTION: Over 2.5 goals @ 1.70