Athletic’s season picks up speed

Athletic begins 2022 in a very intense and exciting way. Marcelino’s team has a month of January full of matches but at the same time very motivating with the debut in the Cup and the dispute of the Super Cup. The rojiblancos will play five confirmed matches that could be seven if they overcome their first tie of the KO tournament and reach the final of the competition they already won in 2021.

The first match will be tomorrow at El Sadar against Osasuna (9 pm) in the corresponding clash on the nineteenth day of the League, the last of the first round. “It is a very important game,” he said on Thursday. Iker Muniain in Lezama. That’s how it is. The people of Bilbao have only achieved one victory in the last two months – against Betis at home (3-2) – and it is already urgent to add three by three so as not to be lost by the fight for the noble area of ​​the table, that in the that you have to be at the end of the course to have options for a European place, the goal set by all levels of the Ibaigane club.

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Three days later, it’s time to visit Atlético Mancha Real (20 hours) at the crossroads of the Round of 32 Cup at the La Juventud Sports Center in this town of Jaén, with artificial grass. The captain had no qualms about playing on this surface. “It is true that we are more used to the natural, but we have already played other times in this type of field. We go with all the respect in the world. In this competition there are always surprises, you don’t have to trust anyone “, said the Navarrese.

Mendizorrotza will host the next appointment in the return to the tournament of regularity. The lions visit Alavés in the derby on the 9th (18.30) with Jose Luis Mendilibar on the Albiazul bench after the dismissal of Javi calleja. Slime foxes don’t have a good time. They occupy relegation places with 15 points.

Trip to Saudi Arabia

After playing this commitment, you have to change the chip completely. The team travels to Saudi Arabia on the 11th to play the Super Cup, the most joyous competition last year with the trophy on the way to Bilbao after eliminating Real Madrid at La Rosaleda in Malaga (1-2) and defeating Barça in the clash for the title of La Cartuja (2-3), with that goal by Iñaki Williams at the beginning of extra time that has already been engraved with gold letters in the red and white history. The semifinal against Atlético de Madrid will be on the 13th starting at eight at night, two more hours in Riyadh, the capital of this Arab country.

There is still another match already set on the calendar in this first month of the year, the one corresponding to the 22nd day of the League. It will be against Rayo in Vallecas on the weekend of January 22 and 23 (there is no final date yet). The team led by former lion Andoni Iraola is the true revelation of the season. Madrid are fourth with 30 points and is one of the only three First teams, along with Real Madrid and Sevilla, who have not yet lost in their stadium.

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These are the five confirmed matches. The rojiblancos could play one more if, as everything indicates, they eliminate Mancha Real, a team in the fourth category of state football (Second RFEF), and win the ticket for the eighth of the Cup. And there would be seven games in this month of January if they give a good account of Atlético in Riyadh and get a pass to the match for the Super Cup title against the winner of the other match between Real Madrid and Barça.

The next match in San Mamés will be on February 5 or 6 against Espanyol. The rojiblanco field is freed from the reduction of the capacity to 75% of its capacity decreed by the authorities due to the resurgence of Covid-19, a measure that will last until the 31st. Marcelino They will play all the games this month away from home, both the five already set and the two hypothetical. A higher demand than a very demanding January