Athletic Bilbao take on the visitors Villarreal in the round 31 match of Spanish LaLiga. The match will be played on Sunday, April 12th at Estadio San Mamés (Bilbao)
Athletic are far from new to playing under Ernesto Valverde, who once began his career here as a player. This current spell has been quite strong and successful: they won the Copa del Rey two seasons ago and finished fourth in La Liga last year, also reaching the Europa League semifinals. However, this season things have only really worked in the domestic cup, where they still lost twice in the semifinals to Real Sociedad. Their return to the Champions League was unsuccessful, as they failed to reach the playoffs. That leaves La Liga, where after a strong start they have faded but are now trying to recover — a coach who is set to leave in the summer could still finish in 6th or 7th place. There have been enough setbacks, including a 0-2 defeat to Getafe CF in April. Recently, Athletic have struggled to maintain consistency, especially against well-organized teams. At the same time, their home form still allows them to remain competitive in tight matches.
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Villarreal are focused on a single objective. The “Yellow Submarine” brought Marcelino Garcia Toral back a little over two years ago. He initially pulled the team out of a prolonged slump, and in the 2024/2025 season they collected the same number of points as their rivals from Bilbao. Formally, they still finished 5th and missed out on 4th place, but that was enough to qualify for the Champions League. However, they failed badly there: seven defeats and just one draw, rescued late at home against Juventus FC. Villarreal also exited the cup early. Still, they have been impressive in La Liga, trailing only Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, while competing strongly with Atletico Madrid for third place. After the international break, they narrowly lost 0-1 to Girona FC. Their recent results show a high level of competitiveness even in difficult matches. At the same time, they have been consistently picking up points against mid-table opposition.
Since 2019, the “Basques” have lost only once in this matchup. However, in September they failed to respond after conceding away and ended up losing. Athletic are considered slight favorites, but their opponents are rightly among the contenders for third place. The best pick here is Villarreal not to lose.
Prediction for the match: Villarreal not to lose (X2).
