Goals and clean sheets: Athletic’s last three wins at Mestalla

Athletic Club face Valencia CF at Mestalla on Saturday (December 12, 14:00 CET) for their LaLiga matchday 13 fixture. Throughout LaLiga history, the lions have managed 13 wins, 22 draws and 50 losses on their travels to Valencia.

The historical head-to-head at Mestalla doesn’t make for pleasant reading. But the lions’ last three LaLiga victories at Mestalla were quite impressive and will still bring a smile to the face of any Athletic fan. The three matches followed completely different scripts, but they did have a couple of things in common – two or more goals for the lions and clean sheets.

In 2007-08, Athletic romped their way to a 0-3 win on the mediterranean coast. Fran Yeste, with a typically classy free-kick in the 32nd minute, was the first on the scoreboard. Striker Fernando Llorente scored a second-half brace to put the game, one goal a header and the other a simple tap-in after an injury-time goalkeeping mishap.

In 2015-16, Athletic won by the same scoreline in a different sort of match. The tie remained goalless until the 73rd minute, Sabin Merino making the breakthrough with a well-placed header from Mikel San José’s pinpoint cross.

Iker Muniain scored the second, slipping the ball under the keeper’s legs after being played through by central midfielder Mikel Rico. And Aritz Aduriz sealed the win when he outjumped the Valencian defence at a corner.

The lions picked up another well-deserved victory over Valencia last season (2019-20), defeating the home side 0-2 after LaLiga came back from its COVID-19 induced break. Raúl García had his shooting boots on and two goals at the beginning of each half saw Athletic triumph in a frenetic fixture.

Both goals were easy on the eye too. For the first one, the forward got on the end of Iñaki Williams’ low cross in the box. Raúl then completed his brace with a 47th-minute rocket. Finding himself in plenty of space on the edge of the area, the attacking midfielder shifted the ball onto his unfavoured left foot before letting rip and hitting it into the top-right corner of the net.