Athletic Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde expects a battle against Real Mallorca.

Athletic go into the clash on Sunday on the back of consecutive games.

"It's important because last season we had certain difficulties against those opponents," said Valverde.

"Getting rid of that bad feeling is key, above all to revitalise ourselves at the start this campaign."

He added: "We know the difficulties involved in taking on Mallorca. They know how to play their trump cards very well, they're brave and they fight for every ball. But we want to maintain this run of positive results we've been stringing together."