Bilbao came to the tournament as the current winner of this tournament. A year ago Athletic beat Real Madrid and Barcelona in turn, which brought the team this trophy. In addition, the “lions” played twice in a row in the finals of the Spanish Cup. The 24-time winner of the King’s Cup started confidently in this tournament, where on January 6th they beat the unyielding Mancha (2:0). In the championship Basque examples are traditionally unstable. For 21 rounds of the current championship, the “red-whites” recorded six victories and 10 peaceful outcomes, which ultimately brought 28 points and the ninth position. The indicators in the attack line look very modest, which differed less than once per game on average. In 2022 Marcelino’s wards defeated Osasuna (3:1) and tied with Alaves (0:0). Nunes, who has an ankle injury, will not be able to take part in the fight today.
For the second season in a row Lecce has been trying to return to Serie A, but so far without success. Last season, the “yellow-reds” reached the semi-finals of the playoffs, but lost there to “Venice”. Before the start of the current season, Lecce was considered one of the main contenders for a direct ticket to the elite, but in the first round Marco Baroni’s team failed to justify this status. So far, Lecce is fifth in the table with 34 points. There are four points behind the leader in the face of Pisa, three points more for the second Brescia, while the competitors played a match more. In the last round Lecce beat Pordenone away with a score of 1:0, thus obtaining the third victory in the last four matches and coming close to the second line.
