Athletic Bilbao presented Barcelona the best gift for Christmas and New Year, by forcing its host Real Madrid to settle for a goalless draw, the day before yesterday, in the 18th stage of the Spanish League, which made the Catalan club enter the traditional holiday alone in the lead.
French coach Zinedine Zidane's team suffered the last touch knot, playing and controlling but not scoring, and this was clearly repeated in the last three games (Valencia, Barcelona and Bilbao). The riyal found it difficult for Bilbao, who maintained its unbeaten record for the ninth game in a row, including the second round of the Cup competition.
But Real maintained the least of his unbeaten record against his Basque opponent since March 7, 2015, when he fell in "San Mames" with one goal, while his last defeat against this team in "Santiago Bernabeu" dates back to February 19, 2005 when he fell zero -2.
The Royal Club was the best party and got a number of opportunities to open the scoring, most notably for German Toni Kroos who alone with goalkeeper Unai Simon, but the ball bounced from the latter's face to the crossbar (19), at a time when Bilbao relied on quick counterattacks that were dangerous to the Belgian goalkeeper's goal Thibaut Courtois, notably via Inika Williams. Real continued his preference, but he was unable to reach the net, and the crossbar and the Real players' singles were repeated without interest.
Barcelona and Real will enter the New Year holidays, the first in the lead alone by two points after beating Alaves 4-1, taking advantage of the sufficiency of his royal rival in the third draw, respectively.
• Bilbao tied in the ninth consecutive game in the Spanish League.