There’s still a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the 2017/18 La Liga season which means that Barcelona might still be caught. Their closest competitors are in action on Sunday as second-placed, Atletico host Athletic Bilbao at the Wanda Metropolitano. The visitors currently occupy 13^th whilst juggling a run in the Europa League. Both sides played in the competition on Thursday night: Bilbao went away to Spartak Moscow and won 3-1 while Atletico went one better and beat Copenhagen 4-1 away from home.

STATS

• Atletico have improved in recent weeks and can now put themselves within seven points of Barca at the top of the league with their game-in-hand. They are unbeaten in their last six league matches with five wins and a draw and are starting to rekindle their notoriously solid defensive line. They managed to come away from Malaga in their last game with a 1-0 win after Antoine Griezmann found the back of the net in the first minute.
• After a run of three wins in four for Athletic Bilbao, they are now struggling for results without a win in their last five in the league. With the input of the Europa League, their results aren’t expected to get any better, especially facing one of Spain’s very best teams. They played out a boring goalless draw at home against Las Palmas in their last league game.
• Griezmann’s goal against Malaga takes him up to eight league goals for the season and when paired with his five assists in La Liga, it’s not bad at all, he’s Atletico top scorer.
• One player with the same amount is Aritz Aduriz of Athletic Bilbao, the evergreen striker is having yet another good goal scoring season and bagged a brace in the Europa League on Thursday.

HEAD TO HEAD

When looking at the recent meetings between these two sides. It certainly doesn’t make good reading for Sunday’s visitors. They haven’t beaten Atletico in nine league attempts with their last win over them coming back in 2013. You have to go another couple of years further back to find the last time they beat Diego Simeone’s side away, January 2011 was the last time. When the sides faced last, back in September, Atletico came away with a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Angel Correa and Yannick Fereira-Carrasco.

ATLETICO NEWS

After Barca’s win over Eibar, Atletico must close the gap to seven points if they want any chance of winning the title. Diego Costa returned to training in the week as well as Jan Oblak while Stefan Savic won’t feature for the hosts.

Latest matches: Athletic Bilbao

15.02.2018	UEFA	FC Spartak Moscow	Athletic Bilbao	1:3	W
09.02.2018	LaLi	Athletic Bilbao	Las Palmas UD	0:0	D
04.02.2018	LaLi	Girona FC	Athletic Bilbao	2:0	L
26.01.2018	LaLi	Athletic Bilbao	SD Eibar	1:1	D
19.01.2018	LaLi	Getafe CF	Athletic Bilbao	2:2	D

ATHLETIC BILBAO NEWS

Bilbao will be up against it in the capital but a win can take them 11^th in the table. Their hopes of three points will be knocked by the fact that Aduriz and Raul Garcia are both suspended while they have two players suffering from cruciate ligament injuries: Iker Muniain and Iker Undabarrene.

Latest matches: Athletic Bilbao

15.02.2018	UEFA	FC Spartak Moscow	Athletic Bilbao	1:3	W
09.02.2018	LaLi	Athletic Bilbao	Las Palmas UD	0:0	D
04.02.2018	LaLi	Girona FC	Athletic Bilbao	2:0	L
26.01.2018	LaLi	Athletic Bilbao	SD Eibar	1:1	D
19.01.2018	LaLi	Getafe CF	Athletic Bilbao	2:2	D

SUMMARY

Atletico will be expecting nothing less than a win in front of their home crowd on Sunday and will take even more confidence from the two suspensions in the visitors’ team. Athletic Bilbao will be hoping to break down the hosts’ resolute backline on the counter-attack but won’t have enough quality to come away with the three points, they can hope for a draw at best but even that is a long shot.