Athletic Bilbao vs. Sevilla 7/9/20 LaLiga Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Athletic Bilbao is welcoming Sevilla to San Mames in a derby match of round 35 in Spanish LaLiga.

Bilbao has been playing well since the restart, and they have only 2 losses in their last 7 games, alongside 3 wins, and 2 draws. Athletic Bilbao is in 9th place in the standings with 48 points, just 5 points away from the Europa League, and of Athletic can continue playing this well, they might just reach that 6th place. Bilbao hasn’t been an overly offensive team with only 38 scored goals, but their defense has been outstanding with only 29 conceded goals in 34 games. In their last LaLiga game against Real Madrid at home, Bilbao was solid with 43% of ball possession, 1 shot on goal, 3 corner kicks, and 82% of the correct passes. Bilbao has lost this game 0-1 by a goal from a penalty kick in 73rd minute. Now, the penalty wasn’t suspicious as itself, and it was awarded after the referee consulted with the VAR, but the problem is that the exact same situation happened on the other side, and Bilbao was not awarded a penalty kick. This situation resulted in a lot of accusations on the Real Madrid’s account over the last week, but it’s impossible to know if the VAR referees were partial while making those decisions. Raul Garcia has scored 13 goals for Bilbao this season, while Williams added 6 goals. There are no injuries in Bilbao as of right now. Bilbao can absolutely reach that Europa League spot, but they must get back on the winning track, or get at least a draw from this match.

Sevilla still hasn’t lost a game since the restart, and they are now on a nice 2-game winning streak during which they scored 4 goals and conceded 0 goals. Sevilla is in 4th place in the standings with 60 points, which is the Champions League spot, but Sevilla is only 3 points away from the third place, which sounds better than fourth place. In their latest LaLiga game against Eibar at home, Sevilla has had massive 62% of ball possession, 3 shots on goal, huge 11 corner kicks, and 84% of the correct passes. Sevilla has had some good chances in this game, but so did Eibar. In the end, Sevilla has won this game 1-0 with a goal from a penalty spot. Since the restart, Sevilla has scored at least 1 goal in 6 of their last 7 games, and overall, Sevilla has scored 49 goals this season. Sevilla’s defense has also been solid, and they conceded only 33 goals so far. Ocampos is Sevilla’s top goalscorer with 13 goals, while De Jong added 6 goals. Jesus Navas leads Sevilla with 7 assists, while Banega added 6 assists. Corchia is the only injured player for Sevilla. Since the restart, Sevilla has been one of the best teams in LaLiga, but they have had some struggles in the attacking end as of late. Hopefully, those struggles will end soon.

Sevilla hasn’t lost any of their last 6 away games, and any of their last 13 games overall. Bilbao has had plenty of success against Sevilla at home, but something is drawing towards the draw here, and one again, I got to go with my gut.