Atletico Madrid vs Athletic Bilbao Betting Tips

Both sides are having good seasons and have reason to be excited about what the rest of the campaign might hold. Atleti are only 2 points behind leaders Barcelona and progressed into the knock-out stages of the Champions League as group winners after an impressive 2-1 win at Benfica in midweek.

They’ll be hoping they can sneak under the radar again and repeat their sensational achievements of the 2013-14 season and there is no reason why they can’t go close to repeating those feats. The similarities are striking in that their defence has a formidable look to it. Atletico have only conceded 6 goals so far, which is 5 goals fewer than the next best defence in La Liga.

Athletic will provide them with a test though. They rested virtually their entire first team for Thursday’s Europa League draw with AZ so should be fresh here and have only lost 1 of their last 13 games in all competitions.

Atletico are unbeaten in their last 13 and have won their last 7 matches so this really is a clash between two form teams. It’s hard to bet against Atletico at the Vicente Calderon though. Discounting a couple of defeats this year to a Barcelona side, who are on a different level to everyone else right now, they have lost just 1 of their last 45 league matches at their home ground and 34 of those games have been victories.

Therefore at 8/13 Atletico Madrid look pretty good value for 3 points here and Athletic although much improved on last year aren’t quite at the level where you’d fancy them to consistently compete with the big three in this league especially away from home.

Despite their excellent start, Atletico have only scored more than 2 goals on 1 occasion in the league this year and they are unlikely to win big here but they are in that very useful habit of nicking games and at 9/2 they are worth backing to win this 1-0.