Sevilla vs Athletic Bilbao Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

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Joel Amorim Jan 05, 2016 @ 01:02 am

Next Saturday, 9th of January 2015, an inconsistent Sevilla will measure forces with Athletic Bilbao at the emblematic Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán for Round 19 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

After a convincing win over a refurbished Espanyol, Sevilla were caught by surprise at the Andalusia derby against Granada last weekend. Unai Emery’s men failed to cope with their opponents intensity, especially in the first-half, and ended up by conceding their sixth defeat of the season. Sevilla have also revealed, once again, their error proneness back in defence, particularly in Granada’s second goal, when the Polish defensive midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak failed to intercept the ball and allowed Peñaranda to put up a superb goal.

Sevilla tried to lift their heads after the break, but they failed to overcome an extremely inspired Andrés Fernández, who probably put up his best performance of the season so far. Next weekend’s fixture against Athletic Bilbao will certainly be a fairly complicated one, but if Sevilla manage to win, they will change places with the Basque team at the league table. For that particular match, Unai Emery will not be able to rely on the contribution of the French defender Adil Rami, who was sent off last time out. Nicolas Pareja and Marco Andreolli will also miss out there due to long term injuries.

Before the important clash against Athletic Bilbao, Sevilla will perform a short journey to Benito Villamarin, where they will measure forces with Real Bétis for the first-leg of the 1/8 finals of the Copa del Rey.

As for Athletic Bilbao, after their impressive win at Los Balaídos against Celta de Vigo, the Basque team were caught by surprise at home by a mighty UD Las Palmas, who are a completely different team after the arrival of Quique Sétien back in October.

Athletic were stronger during the first-half, but allowed a powerful comeback from the islanders after the break. The experienced forward Aritz Aduriz netted in Athletic’s first goal and extended his fantastic campaign this season. The 34-year old forward has already scored 11 goals so far this term.

Before next weekend’s travel to Andalusia, Athletic Bilbao will take on Villarreal at San Mamés for the first-leg of the 1/8 finals of the Copa del Rey.

Sevilla

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - LWDWW

Athletic

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DWWWL

Possible Line-ups

Sevilla (4-2-3-1) - Rico - Mariano - Carriço - Kolodziejczak - Tremoulinas - Iborra - Krychowiak - Banega - Vitolo - Konoplyanka - Gameiro

Athletic (4-2-3-1) - Iraizoz - De Marcos - Gurpegi - Laporte - Balenziaga - Rico - San José - Raul Garcia - Susaeta - Williams - Aduriz

Injury List / Suspended Players

Sevilla - Andreolli (inj) - Parejo (inj) - Rami (sus)

Athletic - Ibai Gomez (in doubt)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions