Osasuna vs Ath Bilbao prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2023-08-18 19:30.
After beginning the season with a 2-0 away win against Celta Vigo, Osasuna will look to match last season’s start with two victories from two in their first home match of the campaign at the El Sadar Stadium. Last season, Los Rojillos actually started and ended with three successive home league victories, and have lost their opening home league game only once since returning to La Liga in 2019/20 (W1, D2).
Overall the 2022/23 season was an impressive one for Jagoba Arrasate’s side who finished in seventh place in the league and reached the final of the Copa del Rey (CDR), only to ultimately lose to Real Madrid. However, scoring goals was an issue, with no team in the top 13 places in La Liga (LL) finding the back of the net fewer than Osasuna’s 37 times. Ahead of this campaign, RaĂşl GarcĂa, who scored 19 and made nine assists for MirandĂ©s in the Segunda Division, and was a reported transfer target for Premier League Everton, signed to try and solve the goal-scoring conundrum.
Athletic Bilbao had a tough opening to this season as they were beaten 2-0 by last year’s runners-up Real Madrid, but they will expect to be much more competitive against Osasuna, who finished only one place and two points better off in the league last term. However, Athletic fans ended last season without seeing a win from their final four matches, while the team failed to score in both of their league clashes with Osasuna last year (D1, L1), also suffering a CDR exit at the hands of their Pamplona rivals.
Although their overall form was poor towards the end of the campaign, Athletic found the back of the net in five of their last six LL matches away from home. They also began strongly on their travels and supporters will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s start to the season when they travelled to and beat Cádiz 4-0 and Elche 4-1.
Players to Watch: Moi Gómez hit Osasuna’s second goal last week, with four of his last five LL strikes coming in victories. Striker Iñaki Williams scored in Athletic’s opening away league game of last season and will look to net his fourth career goal against Osasuna here.
Hot stat: Across their last seven LL games, Osasuna have kept four clean sheets and conceded only one goal in each of the other three.