Real Madrid would make a long journey to the Basque Country to take on Athletic Bilbao at the San Mamés Stadium on Saturday night. The Galacticos have started the new season on the front foot and have maximum points to show for their efforts after three league matches.
Julen Lopetegui’s side needs to earn a victory versus Bilbao if they are to keep the pressure on their rivals, Barcelona at the top of the La Liga standings. However, getting a result away from home against Eduardo Berizzo’s team would be a tough ask, but Madrid have enough ammunition in their locker to come away with a win from this contest.
It is expected that Los Blancos would stick with the same winning eleven that managed to see off Leganes with a 4-1 scoreline earlier this month. Lopetegui will opt for a 4-3-3 formation to counter the Bilbao 4-1-4-1 set-up on Saturday.
4-3-3 Real Madrid Predicted Lineup To Face Athletic Bilbao
Defence
Thibaut Courtois should retain his place in Lopetegui’s first XI while Keylor Navas takes his place on the Galacticos bench. The centre-half pairing of Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos should continue at the heart of the Madrid defence after conceding a goal in each of their past two league outings. Dani Carvajal would resume his duties at right-back while Marcelo looks to do some damage going forward down the left flank.
The Madrid backline has not kept a clean sheet since their opening game of the league campaign against Getafe, so it is high time that their defenders started maintaining cleansheets at the back.
Midfield
The world-class trio of Toni Kroos, Casemiro and Luka Modric are expected to line up at the middle of the pitch. All three of them have started the season in good form and would be tasked with dominating possession in midfield.
Both Isco and Lucas Vasquez might come off the bench to make an impact in the second half if needed.
Attack
The prolific front three of Marco Asensio, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale are expected to start up top for Los Blancos. Asensio put in a man of the match display against Croatia during the international break and would be full of confidence going into this clash versus Bilbao.
Both Bale and Benzema managed to score against Leganes in the previous gameweek and would look to replicate a similar kind of display against the Bilbao defence on Saturday.
