Athletic Bilbao vs Rayo Vallecano Betting Tips & Predictions

It has been an encouraging season in many respects for Athletic Bilbao but it hasn’t been a good few weeks for them. They’ve taken only 1 point from their last 2 league games and they weren’t particularly tough ones coming away at Espanyol and at home to lowly Granada. That has left any top four hopes they might have had to have been all but extinguished. To make matters worse they were beaten 2-1 at home by Sevilla on Thursday in the 1st leg of a Europa League tie where home advantage looked extremely pivotal.

Rayo Vallecano have much simpler ambitions and that is merely staying in La Liga for another season. They are making a good fight of their survival bid too. They’ve taken 5 points from their last 3 league games including a priceless 2-0 win over fellow strugglers Getafe last weekend. They’ve been getting some results on the road too and by results we mean 2-2 draws. Bizarrely 5 of their last 6 away games have finished 2-2 and with Athletic prone to scoring and conceding goals you certainly couldn’t rule out another one here. Rayo are currently 3 points above the drop-zone but do have a tough run-in so they are going to need every point they can get.

Athletic’s Europa League match with Sevilla last week was an intense, high tempo affair and there will surely be a few tired legs in the Athletic camp. They may make a few changes here but perhaps the toils of a long season are catching up with them and that could be good news for Rayo. They have got a bit of momentum at last and given their recent run of away results consider backing this game to finish in a 2-2 draw at 14/1.