Newcastle United play host to La Liga outfit Athletic Bilbao at St James’ Park on Saturday in their final game of pre-season.
Eddie Howe is expected to split his first-team squad across the two fixtures against Atalanta and Athletic respectively, which take place on Friday and Saturday respectively.
The Magpies will close pre-season with the visit of Athletic just a week before their Premier League curtain-raiser against Nottingham Forest at St James’ Park on August 6.
Newcastle have collected two wins and two defeats from pre-season and narrowly lost their last outing 3-2 against Benfica in Lisbon on Tuesday. With Newcastle pitted against Athletic for the first time since 1994, the Chronicle have taken an in-depth look at the Spanish side ahead of Saturday's encounter.
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Pre-Season So Far
Athletic boasted the third-strongest defence in Spain last season – conceding just 36 goals in 38 games. However, they found the net just 43 times with Inaki Williams finishing as their leading scorer with a mere eight goals.
An eighth-place finish saw them finish outside of the European qualification places and Marcelino announced that he was stepping down as manager after just one season.
The Lions' only signing this summer has been centre-forward Gorka Guruzeta from third-tier side SD Amorebieta. They’ve offloaded four players on a permanent basis and a further four on season-long loans as Valverde takes on a remarkable overhaul of the squad.
Their focus has predominantly been on integrating academy players into the first team with four players being promoted from the reserve team. Athletic are unbeaten in pre-season but have won just one of their four pre-season friendlies thus far.
They registered draws against Borussia Monchengladbach, MSV Duisburg and FSV Mainz respectively in Germany and won 4-1 against VfL Bochum.
Manager: Ernesto Valverde
Valverde has returned to Athletic for his third stint in the managerial hot seat at San Mames. The 58-year-old has been out of work since his dismissal at FC Barcelona in January 2020, where he won two La Liga titles and two domestic cups.
He played 170 times for the Lions, scoring 44 goals, before embarking on his coaching career within the youth set-up at Athletic following his retirement. He served as assistant manager and head coach of the reserve team before taking on his first senior role with the first team in 2003.
The former Spanish international spent two years at San Mames during his first spell and guided them to UEFA Cup qualification in his inaugural season. After a one-year break, Valverde returned to football management with Espanyol, and had two stints at Olympiakos either side of a short and disappointing tenure with Villarreal.
Valverde struggled once again at Valencia but resuscitated with his career during a second and successful spell with Athletic. The Lions qualified for the UEFA Champions League during his first season at the helm and won their first trophy in 31 years with a 5-1 aggregate victory over Barcelona in the 2015 Supercopa de Espana final.
His work at Athletic earned him a lucrative move to Barcelona in 2017. It was the most successful period of his managerial career but a drop in form and a failure to win the UEFA Champions League led to his dismissal two-and-a-half years ago.
Valverde has generally preferred an attacking 4-3-3 formation across his managerial career, in contrast to his predecessor Marcelino, who fielded a rigid 4-4-2 system.
Key Player: Inaki Williams
Inaki Williams was plucked from Basconia in the infant stages of his senior career and has been crucial for Athletic ever since. He initially started out in their reserve team, scoring 21 goals in 32 league appearances in his first season, before being promoted to the first team in 2014.
Since then, the 28-year-old has scored 75 goals and provided 47 assists in 338 appearances for the Lions. Inaki Williams also holds the record for the most successive appearances in Spanish top-flight history. He has played 230 successive matches for Athletic and has not missed a game for an extraordinary six years.
His brother Nico Williams also enjoyed a breakthrough season for Athletic last term, scoring twice against Atletico Mancha Real in the Copa Del Rey and the winning goal over Atletico Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana semi-final.
Special Mention: Iker Muniain
Muniain graduated from Athletic’s academy in 2009 and became the youngest player in 94 years to feature for the Lions in a competitive game at 16 years, 7 months and 11 days old.
The 29-year-old has gone onto play 499 times for Athletic and won the Supercopa de Espana in 2021. He has also been on the losing side in four Copa del Rey finals and starred in the Athletic side that reached the UEFA Europa League final in 2012.
He is sixth in Athletic’s all-time appearance list and is only 42 games behind second-place Txetxu Rojo. However, Muniain has a long way to go to become Athletic’s all-time leading appearance holder with the record held by Jose Angel Iribar, who played 614 times for the Lions between 1962 and 1980.
Previous Meetings
The only previous meetings between both teams took place during the 1994/95 season. Newcastle were drawn against Athletic in the second round of the UEFA Cup after winning 10-2 against Royal Antwerp over two legs in the previous round.
Newcastle stormed into a 3-0 lead inside 56 minutes courtesy of goals from Ruel Fox, Peter Beardsley and Andy Cole. However, Athletic pulled back two late goals to reduce the deficit to a single goal, before Jose Ziganda scored the only goal in Spain to send Athletic through on away goals.
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