Athletic Bilbao Aims for Third Straight Win Against Struggling Elche
Athletic eye third straight win as struggling Elche head to San Mamés
San Mamés expects noise, energy and a home side hunting momentum. Athletic Bilbao welcome Elche CF on Saturday with the two clubs walking very different early-season paths in La Liga.
Athletic sit in 9th with six points and the wind at their backs. Edin Terzic’s team arrive from a statement 3-0 win over Atlético de Madrid, a result that sharpened belief that this group can push higher than mid-table comfort. Two wins on the bounce, two games unbeaten, and goals flowing again in Bilbao.
Elche travel in the opposite mood. Nineteenth in the table, just a single point on the board, and three straight defeats behind them. Martín Anselmi’s side were edged 3-2 by Real Sociedad last time out, a scoreline that flatters the result more than the performance. They concede too often, and right now they can’t turn games around.
San Mamés, then, is a daunting destination.
Form lines tell a clear story. Elche have gone four matches without a win and have conceded in each of those four. Away from home, they are two games without victory and searching for any foothold. Athletic, by contrast, look sharper with every outing and have already beaten this opponent in their most recent meeting, a 2-1 success.
Terzic has a relatively settled core. Against Atlético de Madrid, he lined up Unai Simón behind a back four of Jesús Areso, Aymeric Laporte, Yeray Álvarez and Yuri Berchiche. In midfield, Iñigo de Galarreta and Benat Gerenabarrena provided the base, with Robert Navarro and Oihan Sancet linking play and driving forward. Out wide and up front, the Williams brothers, Nico and Iñaki, stretched and punished Atlético in transition.
One enforced absence clouds the picture: Unai Egiluz remains sidelined with a cruciate ligament tear. Even so, the spine of this Athletic side is intact, and the balance between control and vertical threat looked close to ideal in their last outing.
Elche’s last starting XI in San Sebastián showed where Anselmi is placing his trust: Matías Dituro in goal; Buba Sangaré, Víctor Chust, Pedro Bigas and Tete Morente across the back line; a midfield unit of Facundo Buonanotte, Germán Valera, Gonzalo Villar and Javi Morcillo; Fer Niño and Ezequiel Ponce leading the attack. There is technical quality there, but the collective structure has leaked goals at key moments.
The contrast in confidence could be stark. Athletic’s pressing and direct running, especially from Nico and Iñaki Williams, will test an Elche defence that has struggled to hold firm under sustained pressure. Elche, for their part, must find a way to quieten San Mamés early and protect Dituro from the waves of attacks that tend to come once the crowd senses vulnerability.
History leans red and white. The last time these two met, Athletic emerged 2-1 winners. Now they return home chasing a third straight victory, with a chance to turn a solid start into something more serious.
For Elche, the task is blunt and urgent: stop the slide, stop conceding, and steal something from one of the most unforgiving grounds in Spain.
If they can’t, the table in September may already start to look uncomfortably familiar.
