Athletic Bilbao vs Sevilla

Mid-table Athletic Bilbao entertain surprising La Liga title candidates Sevilla in a high-stake fixture at the Estadio San Mamés.

An uneventful scoreless draw away to 19th-placed Getafe last time out made it seven consecutive Serie A matches without a win for Athletic Bilbao (D5, L2). A low-scoring theme has highlighted Bilbao’s recent league outings as four of the last five have seen one or both sides fail to score in games garnering under 1.5 total goals. ‘Los Leones’ have established themselves as the ‘stalemate specialists’ this season, drawing a league-high nine (56.25%) of their 16 La Liga fixtures so far (W4, L3). On the bright side, though, Athletic have registered a staggering ten victories across their last 11 top-flight H2Hs on home turf (L1), prevailing by a multi-goal margin on 50% of those occasions. Marcelino Garcia Toral has based his team’s La Liga set-up on a rock-solid defense that has conceded a league joint-low 11 goals this term.

Meanwhile, Sevilla’s 1-0 away loss at Red Bull Salzburg in midweek Champions League action dropped them to the Europa League knock-outs. ‘Los Nervionenses’ can now switch their attention towards La Liga, where they sit in second, eight points below pacesetters Real Madrid. A narrow 1-0 home win over Villarreal last time out halted Sevilla’s two-game winless league run (D1, L1), marking their third clean sheet in five La Liga matches. Away from home, only Atheltic (4) have conceded fewer La Liga goals than Sevilla (5) so far this season, with four of those five goals shipped coming before half-time. That hasn’t helped them establish consistency on the road, as evidenced by Sevilla’s indifferent La Liga form away from home this season (W3, D3, L2).