Okay, so I’ve been trying to get better at predicting football scores. It’s tough, man! But I figured, why not try to document my process and see if it helps me improve. Today, I’m looking at the Athletic Bilbao vs. Cadiz match.
My Starting Point: Gut Feeling
First thing I did? Just went with my gut. I know Bilbao is generally stronger at home, and Cadiz struggles on the road. So, initially, I was thinking a comfortable Bilbao win.
Digging into Recent Form
Next, I needed to look at how both teams have been playing recently. I simply searched for their last five games.
- Bilbao: Checked their results. Were they winning, drawing, losing? What was the scoreline? Lots of goals, or tight matches?
- Cadiz: Same deal. I wanted to see if they were on a terrible losing streak, or if they’d maybe pulled off a surprise result recently.
Home vs. Away
This is big. I specifically looked at Bilbao’s home record and Cadiz’s away record. It’s often very different from their overall performance. I just manually checked some websites that listed their home/away results, and took down what looks like, because I do not have access to real time data.
Head-to-Head History
Then, I looked at the history between these two teams. Have they played each other a lot? Who usually wins? Are the matches usually high-scoring or low-scoring? I just searched “Bilbao vs Cadiz head to head” and looked at the results of the past few matches. I jotted down some notes in my notebook about any patterns I saw.
Trying to Spot Any Extra Factors
This is the tricky part. I tried to think about anything else that might affect the game.
- Injuries/Suspensions: I did a quick search for news about both teams. Are any key players missing?
- For example, I wrote down: “Check if Bilbao’s main striker is fit” and “See if Cadiz has any defenders suspended”.
- Motivation: Is there anything special about this match? Are they fighting for a European spot, or to avoid relegation? Does one team need the win more?
- I noted down things like: “Check league table to see their positions”
Putting It All Together (My Prediction Process)
Okay, so after gathering all this, I tried to make a prediction. It’s not scientific, more like an educated guess. Based on my notes, it looked like this:
Bilbao: Strong at home, usually score a decent amount. Let’s say they’re likely to score at least 1, maybe 2.
Cadiz: Struggle away, don’t score many. Maybe they’ll get lucky and grab a goal, but probably not.
My Final Prediction
Based on all of that, I wrote down my prediction: I am leaning towards a 2-0 or a 2-1 victory for Athletic Bilbao. I will check the result and to be honest, I’m probably going to be wrong, but hopefully, by doing this whole process, I’ll get a little bit better each time! It is a fun attempt!
