Athletic Bilbao will aim to extend their unbeaten run in La Liga to nine matches when they take on Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium on Thursday.
With 18 matches in the books, Athletic Bilbao find themselves fifth in the table – three points shy of the Champions League spots.
🔛 2⃣0⃣2⃣4⃣ pic.twitter.com/mPQ1TlNGg7— Sevilla Fútbol Club (@SevillaFC) January 1, 2024
🔛 2⃣0⃣2⃣4⃣ pic.twitter.com/mPQ1TlNGg7
At the opposite end of the standings, Sevilla occupy 15th place and remain just three points clear of the relegation zone.
Prior to the winter break, Sevilla suffered a 1-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid, despite seeing more possession thanks to Caglar Soyuncu’s red card.
As a result, the Andalusian outfit have lost three of their last four La Liga encounters, failing to score in a single goal across those defeats.
To make matters worse for Sevilla, they have managed to win just one of their previous 12 league games, recording six draws and five losses in the process.
Still, Sevilla can take confidence from the fact that they have suffered a solitary defeat in their last seven La Liga matches at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
Athletic Bilbao, meanwhile, secured a 1-0 victory over Las Palmas before the winter break, with Unai Gomez scoring the only goal of the game in the 94th minute.
Thanks to clean-sheet victories over Las Palmas, Atletico Madrid and Rayo Vallecano, Bilbao have won three of their last four league outings.
Not only have Athletic Bilbao won three of their last four La Liga matches, but they have also won five of their previous seven, avoiding defeat in that time.
Carrying a 10-game unbeaten streak into Thursday’s clash, Bilbao will be confident of picking up another positive result.
Head-to-head: Sevilla are enjoying a four-game unbeaten run in this fixture, having registered three wins and one draw since their last loss against Bilbao.
It is also worth noting that Sevilla have lost just two of their previous nine La Liga meetings with Athletic Bilbao, notching five wins along the way.
Team news: Sevilla’s extensive injury list contains Marcos Acuna, Loic Bade, Mariano Diaz, Joan Jordan, Dodi Lukebakio, Jesus Navas and Orjan Nyland.
As for the visitors, they are currently without Yeray Alvarez, Dani Garcia, Oscar de Marcos and Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta due to injury.
Despite Sevilla’s impressive record in this fixture in recent years, there is no hiding the fact that Athletic Bilbao are in far better form right now.
With that in mind, Forebet predicts that Athletic Bilbao will score over 1.5 goals and keep a clean sheet on their way to overcoming Sevilla.