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2012-05-25 - Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: Spanish Copa del Rey Final
Friday 25 May 2012 - Kick Off 9pm
This game is live on TV
Athletic Bilbao
It looked like being a major season for the Athletic Bilbao team, but there is a feeling that the long campaign may just have caught up with them down the stretch. They reached the Final of the Europa League before falling short to Atletico Madrid, while they were in the mix for a place in the Champions League before losing their way in La Liga.
Athletic Bilbao struggled away from home all season in the League, going 4-6-9 while scoring 20 goals and conceding 31. However, they displayed solid form in the Cup, winning 7 of their 8 games this season including 3 of their 4 away from home.
The team lost 4 of their last 5 games coming into this one and they failed to score in any of those games. Those results included a 3-0 loss to Atletico Madrid in the Europa League Final in Bucharest and a 0-3 home loss to Real Madrid that sealed the title for the latter. Athletic have failed to score in any of their last 3 games away from their home stadium.
Ander Iturraspe and Ander Herrera are doubts for Bilbao in this game.
Barcelona
This is it... Josep Guardiola will manage his final game for Barcelona before leaving to recharge his batteries and hand the team over to Tito Vilanova. It has been a disappointment of a season with the team failing to retain their La Liga or Champions League titles, but they will want to end it on a high for their most successful manager in the club's history.
Barcelona finished 9 points behind Real Madrid in La Liga and they had an 11-6-2 record away from the Nou Camp, scoring 41 goals and conceding 18. They won 6 of their 8 games in the Cup this season, winning 3 of their 4 games away from home in the competition.
The team won 3 of their last 4 games since being knocked out of the Champions League to Chelsea, finishing the season with a 2-2 draw at Real Betis. Barcelona ended the season on a run of 8 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss from their last 11 games away from home in all competitions.
Pep Guardiola has a few injury concerns in his squad ahead of this game with the likes of Dani Alves, Eric Abidal, Carlos Puyol and David Villa all missing. Gerard Pique looks set to partner Javier Mascherano at the back.
Head to Head
This will be the third meeting of the season between these teams with Athletic Bilbao earning a 2-2 draw at home, but beaten 2-0 at Barcelona recently.
They met in this competition last season with Barcelona winning on away goals following two draws.
They also met in the Final of the 2009 Copa del Rey, a game Barcelona won 4-1 after falling 0-1 behind.
Prediction
You have to believe that Barcelona will be fully motivated to give Josep Guardiola a perfect send off by letting him put his hands on one more trophy before handing the reigns to his assistant.
Both teams play a similar style of football, but there has to be concerns with the way Athletic Bilbao finished the season as it seems the long Europa League campaign may just have taken its toll on the squad. They also played at Barcelona recently and managed just 2 shots in the 90 minutes as they were comfortably beaten.
The biggest issue for Barcelona may just be the makeshift defence they have to put together with injuries taking their toll late in the season. However, you have to think that they will be on the front foot for the majority of the game and that should protect them in the best way from the Athletic attacks.
While Bilbao will be plenty motivated to end the season with a trophy, I just think Barcelona will be too strong for them and they could win by a couple of goals at the least if they take the lead and force Athletic to come out and leave spaces at the back to exploit.
The Pick :
Athletic Bilbao 1-3 Barcelona
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back Barcelona - 1.75 Asian Handicap @ 1.95 (188Bet)
