The formal start of the 2024–25 La Liga season will take place on Thursday night when Athletic Bilbao hosts Getafe at San Mames.
Last season, Getafe finished in 12th place, while the Basque team qualified for the Europa League by finishing in fifth place.
After Athletic concluded their 40-year quest for Copa del Rey triumph with a penalty-shootout victory over Mallorca in the April final, the 2023–24 campaign will go down in Athletic history for all time.
Not only did Athletic win the cup, but they also had a great league season, finishing sixth with 68 points.
Athletic will go into the upcoming season hoping to improve on their best league finish since 2015–16 and secure their first top–four result since 2013–14.
Over the summer, Ernesto Valverde expanded his team by adding winger Alvaro Djalo and full-back Andoni Gorosabel, but keeping one of their main players may have been their best transfer deal.
Winner of Euro 2024 Nico Williams has been strongly linked to a move to Barcelona, but it appears that he will remain at San Mames after being given the number 10 jersey after Iker Muniain, the club legend, left.
Williams has not played in the preseason, but Athletic's preparations for the new campaign have yielded mixed results—three victories and four losses in their seven friendlies.
Getafe broke a run of three straight 15th-place finishes by finishing in 12th place last season with 43 points from 38 games.
After their loan periods, Mason Greenwood, Ilaix Moriba, Oscar Rodriguez, Jose Angel Carmona, Daniel Fuzato, and Juanmi Latasa all left the Azulones, while among others who left permanently were Enes Unal, Anthony Lozano, Jaime Mata, and Nemanja Maksimovic.
Although they have had some notable losses, Getafe has added Jiri Letacek, Alex Sola, Peter Federico, Chrisantus Uche, and Carles Perez to their roster; the latter is a season-long loanee.
Diego Rico, who made 35 appearances while his loan from Real Sociedad last season, has returned to the Coliseum on a permanent basis.
Preseason results have not been kind to Getafe's new recruits; in six friendlies, they have managed one victory, two ties, and three losses.
Similar to their preseason performance, the Azulones have struggled to win their last eight games with Athletic, going winless in that time (D6, L2).
