Athletic Bilbao vs Real Madrid
Real Madrid will open their 2023/24 La Liga season with a trip to Athletic Bilbao.
Real Madrid will travel to Athletic Bilbao headquarters to play their opening match in the 2023/24 La Liga.
Los Blancos will be looking to make the perfect start at San Mames, with their ambitions of taking the Spanish league title away from Barcelona. In 2022/23 Madrid finished second, ten points behind the Catalans after their form dipped during the last few months of last season.
Meanwhile, last season Bilbao was ranked eighth after collecting 51 points, which prevented them from appearing in European competition this season.
Even though on paper Madrid are superior in terms of the quality of individual players, they still have a big hole in the striker position after Karim Benzema left. In addition, Thibaut Courtois’ recent injury has also left the team very shaken.
On the other hand, Bilbao did lose some of its players, but the arrivals of Loic Bade from Rennes and Djibril Sow from Eintracht Frankfurt are believed to have made Los Leones more solid in fighting for the European zone.
Real Madrid will start their season without several of their players; Ferland Mendy, Arda Guler and Dani Ceballos are all out with muscle and hamstring problems.
Apart from that, Courtois also had to be absent for a long time after suffering an ACL injury and will undergo surgery, making Andriy Lunin become Madrid’s main goalkeeper in this match.
Predicted Real Madrid starting XI: Lunin; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Garcia; Modric, Tchouameni, Camavinga; Bellinghams; Rodrygo, Vinicius.