Paul Higham thinks Athletic Bilbao can grab a home win and continue their top corner count as they face Espanyol on Monday.
Three wins in five sees Athletic Bilbao in touching distance of the European places, but they’ll have to do something about their recent home form to stand a chance ahead of their game against Espanyol on Monday.
It’s just one win in five for Bilbao at San Mames in the league, but against Espanyol they’ll fancy their chances as the visitors are one of the more travel sick sides in La Liga – with just one win in 11 on the road so far.
Bilbao will also be in high spirits after earning a late Cope del Rey victory over Real Madrid in midweek, so any bets on this game must be made on the basis that the odds-on hosts will win this one.
While you fancy a Bilbao side who have been scoring regularly to net again, it’s a tough one to get a handle on Espanyol, who have La Liga’s second-top scorer in Raul de Tomas but have failed to score in almost half of their away games (45%).
De Tomas has 12 goals this season and has scored in his last four La Liga games, BUT is suspended here and with nobody else scoring more than three this season we’ll be happy to back a Bilbao win to nil in this game.
There’s enough doubts around a lot of attacking players here to urge caution, so instead let’s play to the strengths of the teams, especially Athletic Bilbao who top the La Liga charts in terms of corners, earning more than any other team.
They also earn more corners on home turf than away, averaging 7.80 per game this season, while allowing just 2.80 per home contest.
Espanyol are an interesting outfit in terms of corners as they’re actually third in corners won away from home with five per game, but the absence of De Tomas is a big negative for this game as they’ll be far less threatening, so we’re staying away from them here and staying cautious.
Bilbao have enough going for them to force the issue on corners though, and I think they can just about top their average and force eight corners here – something they’ve managed seven times this season.
Coupling a nice corner count with a Bilbao victory gets us a nice Bet Builder double to kick-off the week with.
Source: Betfair Spanish La Liga
