Athletic Bilbao vs Celta Vigo Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Apr 26, 2016 @ 12:42 am

Next Sunday, 1st of May 2016, a moralized Celta de Vigo will visit the Basque Country to measure forces with Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés for Round 36 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Celta de Vigo have returned to winning ways at Los Balaídos when they hosted Granada on the last match of Round 35 on Monday. The Galician team was in control for large periods of the match and, after missing a couple of goal chances, Los Celestes opened the score by Iago Aspas from the penalty spot. Granada did not lower their arms and could have reached the equalizer on two different occasions, first when Lomban’s header hit the crossbar and later, in the second-half, when Peñaranda failed to overcome the opposition of Celta’s goalkeeper Ruben Blanco on a one-on-one situation. The Andalusia team did, nevertheless, reach the equalizer by the usual suspect El-Arabi on minute 71’ of the match.

Celta de Vigo pulled rank and piled on the pressure until five minutes later, Iago Aspas netted his second of the night and the Galician team winning goal.

Los Celestes are now just four points behind Villarreal in the league and with three matches until the end of the season, they keep dreaming with a place in the UEFA Champions League next term.

For next weekend’s important match at Bilbao, Eduardo Berizzo will still not be able to rely on the services of Andreu Fontás and Claudio Beauvue, who remain sidelined due to injury.

As for Athletic Bilbao, the Basque team didn’t have the best of weeks after having failed to win both matches in which they took part this week. After losing to the title contenders Atlético Madrid in the middle of the week, Athletic failed to claw the three points on their visit to Comunidad Valenciana to face Levante.

Ernesto Valverde’s men are currently on the 6th place of the table two points behind their upcoming opponents Celta de Vigo and a win out there will allow them to climb one place in the league standings. For that particular match, Ernesto Valverde will not be able to rely on the services of Merino and Laporte, who remain sidelined due to injury. Aduriz is on the final stage of his recovering process and is in doubt out there.

Athletic

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - DLWWW

Celta de Vigo

Stats: W-2 L-0 D-3

Recent Form - WDDWD

Possible Line-ups

Athletic (4-2-3-1) - Iraizoz - Boveda - Etxeita - San José - Balenziaga - Beñat - Iturraspe - Williams - Raúl Garcia - Muniain - Viguera

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Blanco - Mallo - Gómez - Cabral - Jonny - Diaz - Radoja - Hernández - Orellana - Nolito - Aspas

Injury List / Suspended Players

Athletic - Laporte (inj) - Merino (inj) - Aduriz (in doubt)

Celta de Vigo - Andreu Fontas (inj) - Claudio Beauvue (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions