Athletic Club and Real Sociedad face each other in San Mamés with their sights set on Europe
Athletic Club and Real Sociedad will face each other in San Mamés Saturday April 15 at 4:15 p.m. at the basque derby corresponding to the 26th day of Santander League 2022-2023.
The rojiblancos want to achieve victory to get closer to the places that give access to the Europa Leaguewhile the txuri-urdin seek to add the three points to establish themselves in fourth position that gives the classification to play the Champions League.
Athletic reaches the derby after being eliminated in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey against Osasuna last week, but also after recovering from the cup setback and achieving victory against Espanyol (1-2). That victory helped Ernesto Valverde’s team to remain seventh and close the gap with respect to the sixth place occupied by Betis with 45 points, five more than the Bilbao team.
For its part, Real Sociedad will visit San Mamés in fourth place in the standings. The txuri-urdin team is having a great season and wants to win the derby against Athletic to maintain or extend their lead over a Villarreal team that is fifth with four points less than the people from San Sebastian.
On the part of Athletic, Ernesto Valverde will not be able to count on Óscar De Marcos by sanction. Placing Yeray as a right back and playing with Vivian and Iñigo Martínez as center backs is one of the options to cover the absence of De Marcos. Another option is for Capa to play in that demarcation, although it seems more remote. Unai Simón, who has missed some training this week, is aiming for the starting goalkeeper.
As for Real Sociedad, the coach Imanol Bailiff will be able to count on the presence of David Silva. The canary, absent in some training this week, already exercised normally on Thursday, he also did it this Friday, and will be part of the game in the derby.
Source: Eitb
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