Athletic Bilbao vs Sassuolo Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

This is a big game in the context of Group F which is very finely poised with only 1 point separating all 4 sides. Sassuolo may have run out convincing winners when these sides met in Italy earlier in the group but this promises to be a much more competitive game and Athletic come into it as heavy favourites with the bookies.

The Basques are on a decent run and are without defeat in 4 games in all competitions. Their home form is particularly impressive with 6 wins and a draw from their last 7 games at San Mames. Last time out at home in this competition Aritz Aduriz hit 5 goals as Athletic won a 5-3 thriller against Genk. They can virtually assure their qualification with 3 points here so the Basques will head out with a positive approach and 3 points in mind, to potentially give them the option of resting a host of players in their final group game.

They should have little trouble scoring at least one goal against an out of form Sassuolo side. The Italians are without a win in 7 matches and without a clean sheet in 10, so up against arguably the competitions most deadly striker and one of its strongest sides, the hosts should create plenty of scoring opportunities. However, defensively Athletic have looked a little suspect at times and its fairly rare that they keep a clean sheet at home. Both teams have scored in 8 of their last 11 home games so there is hope for the visitors here.

Both teams have scored in 9 of Sassuolo’s last 10 matches too so the stats suggest we should see a few goals in this one. Sassuolo have always been a team that scores goals and they bagged 3 against Athletic earlier in the group. However, they are not defending anywhere near well enough to go to San Mames and keep a clean sheet right now so backing both teams to score at 19/20 looks to offer great value here.