Last season, Girona and Athletic Club finished third and fifth respectively in the La Liga table, and the expectation is that both sides will be fighting for the European places again during the 2024-25 campaign. As a result, Sunday’s showdown fixture at Montilivi will be a very important one.
Athletic go into the match in good form, having won four of their last six games across all competitions. However, they will be without suspended first-choice goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala after his red card against Sevilla last weekend, and the Basque club have now confirmed that Nico Williams will also miss out.
Williams suffered a pelvic injury in Athletic Club’s Europa League success against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday, and it is bad enough to keep him out of travelling to Catalonia this weekend. It remains to be seen whether it also means that he is unavailable for Spain’s upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures against Denmark and Serbia.