Sevilla vs Athletic Bilbao Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Sevilla very rarely drop points at home in La Liga and they will certainly be targeting the win here as they look to keep their surprise title challenge on track. Right now there is little about Athletic that suggests they will come here and get a result.

Jorge Sampaoli admitted last week for the first time that his side are title challengers and they showed real character to come from behind to win the Seville derby at Betis on Saturday. It was their 4th straight win in all competitions and keeps them within 2 points of leaders Real Madrid. At home they have been outstanding all season, winning 82% of their home league games. Sevilla average 2.55 points per home game, a record only Real can better.

They average exactly 2 goals per game in La Liga, which is excellent and unlike some of the other sides at the top, they tend to share the goals around the team. There are no Sevilla players in the top ten in La Liga’s goalscoring chart and their 2nd top scorer is actually midfielder Vicente Iborra, who has only made 6 league starts. He should get a start here due to suspensions and with 4 goals in his last 8 appearances, backing Iborra to score anytime at 11/4 looks good.

Athletic look like a club at a bit of a crossroads. At 36 Aritz Aduriz isn’t quite as prolific as he was last season and clearly will need to be replaced in the not too distant future. Right now though, there doesn’t really look like there’s anyone capable of filling that void and Athletic’s Basque-only transfer policy makes that not an easy problem to solve. They’ve scored just 0.64 goals per game away this term and with Aduriz injured, they may struggle to really test this Sevilla defence.

64% of Athletic Bilbao’s away games in La Liga have ended in defeat and that’s nowhere near good enough for a side that is targeting Europa League football as an absolute minimum requirement. They’ve taken just 0.73 points per game on the road and with some key players out, it’s hard to see them getting anything here, so backing Sevilla to Win at 4/6 looks a pretty safe bet.