Athletic Bilbao vs Augsburg Betting Tips

It’s often hard to know what you are going to get from the Basque club. They brilliantly defeated Barcelona 5-1 on aggregate to claim the Spanish Super Cup but were pointless after two games in La Liga, which included a shock derby loss to minnows Eibar. They got their tally going at the weekend with a 3-1 home win over Getafe though.

They’ve already played quite a lot of European football this year having progressed through a couple of rounds of qualifying not without a scare. They were reliant on away goals against Zilina in the play-off round and this will be a step up in class against Augsburg, who excelled in the Bundesliga last season.

Athletic are a good side though and have to be regarded as favourites to win and certainly are vastly more experienced in terms of European action. They are regulars in this competition and have never been relegated from La Liga in contrast to Augsburg who were playing in the 4th tier of German football only 12 years ago. It has been an incredible journey for them up to 5th in the Bundesliga last year, which saw them qualify directly into the group stages so this will be their European debut.

They’ve been poor this season though so far and have picked up just 1 point from 4 Bundesliga matches. They’ve only scored twice and although they haven’t been conceding many, it’s hard to see them causing too many problems for a solid Athletic defence.

They are likely to come here with a cautious mentality given it is likely to be their toughest group match and they won’t want to be disgraced in their first ever Europa League game. A draw would be an excellent result and at times Athletic aren’t great at breaking down defensive sides as they’ve lost some of their more creative players in recent years. The result could be a low scoring game and the value bet here is surely in going for there to be under 2.5 goals at 7/10.

At San Mames, Athletic should still have just enough to nick it though and they will have been reassured by their first league win at the weekend. Consider backing the hosts to win 1-0 at 9/2 if you’re looking for a correct score bet.