Celta Vigo vs Athletic Bilbao

Celta Vigo and Athletic Bilbao will lock horns at the Estadio de Balaídos this weekend as both sides hope to secure their first win of the new La Liga season.

After navigating Celta to their highest finish as a caretaker boss, Eduardo Coudet could be on the cusp of equalling his worst four-match season start as a permanent manager after seeing his side go winless in their opening two La Liga fixtures (D1, L1). Coudet can draw confidence from Celta’s four-game unbeaten home top-flight run against this opposition (W2, D2), a sequence that saw them keep two clean sheets. Yet, after losing their last two home La Liga outings, ‘Los Celestes’ could suffer three home top-flight defeats on the trot for the first time since November 2020. Heading into proceedings as slight favorites, the hosts can find some comfort in going unbeaten in all 11 home La Liga matches they started as favorites last season (W8, D3).

In the meantime, in a true ‘Basque’ fashion, Athletic Bilbao have drawn their opening two La Liga fixtures, both of which featured a goalless HT score and under 2.5 total goals. Although a series of high-profile injuries contributed to Bilbao’s worst La Liga start since 2016/17, there’s no excuse for the visitors’ disastrous attacking record away from home. Indeed, bringing the 2020/21 campaign into the equation, ‘Los Leones’ have failed to get on the scoresheet in five of their previous seven La Liga trips, including the last three in a row. If they draw a blank here, it will be the first time since November 2018 that they’ve failed to score in four successive away games in the competition. Low scoring was a common theme in Athletic’s away La Liga matches last season, with 63.16% of their 19 top-flight trips in 2020/21 featuring under 2.5 FT goals.