Celta Vigo vs Ath Bilbao prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2025-01-18 13:00.
[p]After securing a draw against Barcelona in between wins over Real Sociedad, Real Mallorca and Getafe from their last four home league games, Celta Vigo will be hoping to register a third La Liga victory in a row ‘to nil’ at the Estadio de Balaídos for the first time since March 2006 when they host Athletic Bilbao on Sunday afternoon. [/p]
[p]Los Celestes will have to do it without injured talisman Iago Aspas and his finishing was missed in their last league game, a mid-table clash with Rayo Vallecano in which they attempted their most shots in a La Liga defeat (23) since November 2014! Encouragingly for Celta though, their three defeats prior to that across all competitions were all immediately followed up by back-to-back wins, so they ought to be confident of bouncing back here. [/p]
[p]Athletic are flying in the league of late, posting a ten-match unbeaten run (W6, D4), but they have not gone 11+ games without losing in this competition since October 1985 when Javier Clemente led the side to a 16-match unbeaten run. Only Atlético Madrid have earned more La Liga points than the Lions since the start of matchday 14, confirming Athletic’s status as one of the in-form teams of the competition.[/p]
[p]Away from home, you’d have to go back to early October to find the last time Athletic lost and they have returned home with wins on four of their last five trips across all competitions. Coach Ernesto Valverde should also be looking forward to his latest meeting with Celta Vigo as he has won 15 of his 23 La Liga H2Hs (D5, L3) as Athletic manager, including a convincing 3-1 home victory in September.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: With Aspas expected to be out for the rest of January, Jonathan Bamba has an opportunity to make his mark after providing the assist against Rayo in his first start since November. The Ivorian was on the scoresheet in a H2H last season, as was Gorka Guruzeta who scored twice in both of his last two meetings with Celta Vigo – three of those four goals were struck before half-time.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Athletic Bilbao have opened the scoring in just one of their last six La Liga away games.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Tom Penn[/i][/p]