Espanyol vs Athletic Bilbao preview - Aduriz wary of Espanyol hoodoo

Posted Sunday, September 22, 2013 by PA

Athletic Bilbao striker Aritz Aduriz concedes his side will need to be on their game if they are to pick up a three-point haul at Espanyol on Monday night and end a wait stretching back 15 years.

Athletic last recorded a win from this fixture in 1998 and since then have returned from Barcelona with just five points from 15 matches against Los Pericos.

Aduriz is paying little heed to that miserable record, preferring to look at the present rather than the past, but he is also under no illusions just how tough it is likely to be to defeat an Espanyol side who are still unbeaten under Javier Aguirre this season.

"It's a new game, a different season, with different players," said Aduriz, who scored twice in a 3-3 draw at Estadi Cornella-El Prat last season.

"We want to take charge of the match, create chances and get the three points. Espanyol are a very forceful side and it's tough to score against them. They've only let in three goals so far and haven't lost.

"Aguirre's teams are aggressive and difficult to play against. It's going to be hard to get into their area, but we are progressing well."

While Espanyol have enjoyed a good start to the season with eight points accumulated from four games, Athletic are doing even better having picked up three victories with their only blemish coming from a loss to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

Aduriz said: "We are hoping to fight for good things (this season), but we need to take it step by step because we're coming off quite a bad year."

Espanyol midfielder Victor Sanchez is also refusing to get carried away by his side's promising start which has seen them beat Valencia and Granada.

"We continue being cautious, because things can chance in an instant. In the fourth game you are sixth and after that you can be back down. You need to go game by game and try to get the maximum points possible," he said.

"We need to be conscious of the fact that it isn't easy to be at the top and we need to continue picking up points week by week."