Athletic Bilbao vs Atletico Madrid Betting Tips & Predictions

Atletico Madrid had probably all but given up on any hope of winning the league when they were beaten 2-1 at Sporting Gijon in March but Barcelona’s 3 consecutive league defeats has blown the title race wide open and this is now a massive game for Atleti. Their final 4 matches are all distinctly winnable with 3 at home and a trip to bottom club Levante, so 3 points here would give them a great chance of repeating their title success of 2 years ago.

They’ve won all their 3 league games since that defeat to Sporting, scoring 11 goals in the process which is impressive for a side that isn’t known for its goalscoring prowess. If Barca have turned bad at just the wrong time, it feels like Atleti are doing the exact opposite with even Fernando Torres getting in the goals. He’s netted in all of his last 4 appearances including the comfy 3-0 win against Granada at the weekend.

As for Athletic Bilbao they’ve won all 3 matches over the past week but their 2-1 win at Sevilla in Europe wasn’t enough to go through due to their penalty shoot-out defeat although they did very well to take it that far having lost the 1st Leg. They won 1-0 at Malaga at the weekend which was another impressive result coming so soon after their 120 minutes in Seville and they moved into 5th place as a result. With 4th place Villrreal travelling to the Bernabeu this week, they will know that a win here could well reduce their deficit to just 3 points which would make the race for Champions League football very interesting.

It’s hard to see that though. For starters Athletic will be without their talisman and top scorer Aritz Aduriz and his likely replacement Inaki Williams is still struggling with a knock so could miss out too. That will give Atleti’s strong defence much less to worry about and the way Diego Simeone’s men are playing right now, backing Atletico Madrid to win at 21/20 looks a smart move here.