Athletic Bilbao vs Valencia Betting Tips

Both teams were involved in Europe in midweek away from home but suffered contrasting fortunes. Valencia got their Champions League campaign back on track with an excellent 1-0 win away to Lyon with Sofiane Feghouli’s goal enough to give them a second consecutive 1-0 win.

Athletic meanwhile were on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline in the Netherlands against AZ Alkmaar although it was a much-changed side from the one that drew 0-0 away to Real Sociedad last weekend in the Basque derby.

Their league form has been very poor though and a return of just 4 points from 6 matches doesn’t inspire you with confidence in thinking that Athletic are capable of getting the better of a Valencia side that has started to find it’s feet.

Certainly defensively the visitors still look very strong but they are struggling to really get things going at the other end. Both teams have scored in only 1 of Valencia’s matches this season and there have only been 5 goals in the 6 games involving them in the league.

They may feel that 1 goal will be enough here and this certainly has all the makings of a tight low scoring game. Athletic have failed to score in half of their league matches so far and with the exception of their 3-1 win over Getafe haven’t threatened much at the right end of the pitch and they are overly reliant on Aritz Aduriz for goals. The striker has scored over half of their goals this season in all competitions and 3 out of 4 in the league.

Valencia will clearly be much harder to break down than Getafe but Athletic proved their defensive steel by keeping a clean sheet against Real Sociedad last week and may think they can do the same again here given Valencia only have 3 league goals in 6 matches. Therefore backing ‘No’ in the Both Teams to Score market at 5/6 is surely the smart move here.

Valencia have a little bit more class than Bilbao though and if anyone is going to win it, it is more likely to be them. They don’t have a Champions League game next week to worry about and having already won 3 matches 1-0 this season, they look good value to do likewise again here at 15/2.