With aims of climbing higher than their current fifth place spot going into the weekend, Athletic Bilbao will have Sevilla travel to the San Mamés Barria to see if they can pick up another three points in the league.
Athletic Bilbao have been a side to contend with the traditional top six clubs in Spain over recent years, including last season’s Copa Del Rey trophy win. They have finished no lower than eighth across the last three years and are currently in fifth place after the first seven La Liga matches.
Both Bilbao and Sevilla have key players unavailable to them in this clash. Euro 2024 winning goalkeeper Unai Simón and talented young attacking midfielder Oihan Sancet are put injured with their returns not expected until the end of October. Sevilla have five players that they will sorely miss in this match. Albert Sambi-Lokonga, Djibril Sow, Jesús Navas, Saúl Ñíguez and Isaac Romero all have injury problems but another missing player for Sevilla is centre back Marcão who is suspended for this game.
Predicted Line-Up: Julen Agirrezabla; Adama Boiro, Aitor Paredes, Dani Vivian, Óscar de Marcos; Beñat Prados, Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta; Nico Williams, Álvaro Djaló, Iñaki Williams; Gorka Guruzeta
The first couple of games were a bit shaky for Athletic Bilbao as they opened their 2024/25 La Liga season off with a 1-1 draw with Getafe. The following week and it was a loss, but not an unexpected one as Barcelona beat them 2-1 in the end. It was a first win of the season when they invited Valencia the week after, just the single goal from Prados enough to seal all three points. Bilbao were set to take their second draw of the season against Atlético Madrid until they scored a 90+2 minute winner curtesy of Ángel Correa.
Since that result, Los Leones have gone on a three game winning streak, seeing off the likes of Las Palmas 2-3, Leganes 0-2 and Celta Vigo 3-1. Club legend Iñaki Williams has been in superb form as he is personally responsible for five of the 11 goals that Bilbao have scored, contributing a goal and four assists. Current club top scorer so far Oihan Sancet has three but unfortunately, he is injured, and it is unknown if he will be back fit in time for this match. If he is than he is definitely someone to look out for but we feel that it might be a bit longer until he’s back, causing Athletic Bilbao to potentially struggle.
Predicted Line-Up: Ørjan Nyland; Valentín Barco, Kike Salas, Loïc Badé, José Ángel Carmona; Nemanja Gudelj, Lucien Agoumé; Suso, Peque Fernández, Dodi Lukébakio; Kelechi Iheanacho
Sevilla were once the team that always used to finish in the top six but know their stature has fallen and they have finished in the bottom half of the table for the last two years, 12th and 14th. Come this season and they are sat in a similar position of 13th after seven games. Opening weekend had them drawing 2-2 with Las Palmas before a 1-2 loss against a top four bound Villarreal. It was back to the draws the next week with a goalless stalemate with Mallorca before losing again the next week, this time to last season’s underdog story side in Girona.
Los Nervionenses finally picked up their first win of the season in match week five as they beat Getafe 1-0 at home. After their 2-1 loss on the road against Deportivo Alaves, Sevilla had now lost for the third time this season, but they picked up form by winning in their most recent match. A crucial 2-1 win over relegation battling side Real Valladolid.
This summer was an awful transfer window for Sevilla as it saw them losing pretty much all of their best players. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing if they had replaced them with players that could go onto replicating those performances, but they haven’t. Attacking options Youssef En-Nesyri, Lucas Ocampos, Erik Lamela, Adnan Januzaj and Rafa Mir have all departed the club. Midfielders Óliver Torres, Óscar Rodríguez and Thomas Delaney left as well. Big name players like Sergio Ramos and Marcos Acuña are no longer contracted with the club. That mass exodus could be a major reason for the poor displays this season.
There have been 117 matches where these two teams have faced each other throughout history.
Surprisingly neither team have an advantage over one another. Both Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla have beaten each other a total of 71 times and therefore a number of 35 draws rounds up the 117 games.
The last five faceoffs have been like what is has been across the years, split between the two sides. Bilbao have won twice, Sevilla have won twice and there has been a draw once. However, this match could turn the tides in either team’s favour if there is a winner this Sunday.
19th May 2024 –Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Sevilla – La Liga
4th January 2024 – Sevilla 0-2 Athletic Bilbao – La Liga
27th April 2023 – Athletic Bilbao 0-1 Sevilla – La Liga
8th October 2022 – Sevilla 1-1 Athletic Bilbao – La Liga
22nd May 2022 – Sevilla 1-0 Athletic Bilbao – La Liga
Bilbao play really good football in addition to the quality of players that have scouted from the Basque region. Sevilla are a good side on their day but that doesn’t come up as much anymore. We think this game will be a tough one to predict.
For that reason, our betting experts have gone with a Draw + Both Teams To Score as our best value tip for this game.
Odds of 19/5 mean that a £10 bet has the potential to return up to £48 in this match.
(odds subject to change)
Athletic Bilbao 1-1 Sevilla
Sevilla will create a handful of chances to score, in particular if Lukébakio is playing. We feel like when they do score it will be a snatched equaliser late into the second half as Bilbao’s attack is very strong so they will have already likely scored.
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