Ath Bilbao vs Valencia prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2022-08-20 15:30.
Athletic Bilbao’s opening day woes continued last week with a goalless draw at home to Mallorca that saw them fail to win their first match of a new La Liga (LL) season for the third consecutive season. It is a significant step backwards from the 2-0 win they enjoyed over Mallorca early in the previous season, with Athletic manager Ernesto Valverde praising his players’ “great attitude” whilst asking for more clear goal scoring chances.
Considering Athletic’s LL home record of W10, D4, L5 last season held them back from securing a first UEFA appearance since 2017/18, dropping points immediately would have been bitterly disappointing. Athletic now face the pressure of another home outing, this time against a Valencia side they have not defeated in six attempts across all competitions (D5, L1).
For the fifth time in his blossoming managerial career, Valencia boss Gennaro Gattuso kicked off a new league season with a victory, conquering newly promoted Girona 1-0 at the Mestalla. Considering Valencia’s previous LL campaign was thwarted by the league’s second worst points rate of 1.75 when opening the scoring (W8, D4, L4), managing to hold onto their 1-0 lead despite a second-half red card is encouraging.
The key now for the visitors is not to fall back into the old habits that contributed to just one victory from their last ten matches of 2021/22 across all competitions (D5, L4), which was inflicted upon them despite trailing at half-time just once in that run.
Players to watch: Athletic will be searching for more from forward Álex Berenguer, who was on the scoresheet before half-time in two of their last three LL home victories. On the other hand, stand-in Valencia captain Carlos Soler has never scored a goal against Athletic from open play, netting a single penalty kick from his 11 H2Hs.
Hot stat: All but one of Valencia’s last seven LL games have produced two or fewer total goals, as have eight of the last nine LL H2H meetings.