Celta vs Athletic Prediction 15 May 2024

🔊Celta are yet to escape relegation, with three matches left to play this season. However, they are ahead of 19-placed Cadiz by five points, which means if they fail to beat Athletic Bilbao this week, they will still be above the bottom three. Athletic Bilbao's form dipped a bit following their King's Cup (Copa del Rey). Celta are obviously more interested in this game, as they are not entirely out of the relegation mix, which clearly explains why there are no clear favourites in the match, which will be held at the Balaidos stadium.

Losses
Celta Vigo will push for a win over Bilbao without the services of Aida due to an injury he sustained last year.

Athletic Bilbao won’t travel with Guruseta, due to an injury that sat him out of last weekend’s 2-2 draw against Osasuna. At the same time, Berchiche will be absent due to the busting of yellow cards.

Head-to-head meetings
Athletic Bilbao dominated these fixtures over the year, as they recorded 49 percent of wins, including their hard-fought 4-3 win over Celta at home earlier this season in La Liga. Therefore, we can consider a bet at which Athletic will win or draw.

Referee and fouls

• The teams will be officiated by Victor Garcia Verdura. In the last 10 matches, the referee averaged a lot of fouls - 27.4 per game, but showed an average number of yellow cards - 4 per game.
• Celta fouled 11.9 times on average, but they only received 1.7 yellow cards as a result.
• Athletic Club committed more fouls - 13.5 per game, and unsurprisingly, they received more warnings - 2.1 as a result.

Both teams have an average number of fouls in La Liga. The referee is precise at noticing every foul, even minor ones. Therefore, it is worth choosing a bet on Total Fouls; over (24.5).

Corners

• Six of their last seven head-to-head La Liga encounters produced less than 9.5 corners.
• Athletic Bilbao took more than 4.5 corners in 6 of their last 7 La Liga matches.

The Bilbao outfits serve an average of 5 corners per game this season so far. Paying attention to this stat, it is worth betting on Celta Vigo Total Corners; under 5.5, especially since they played less than 5.5 corners in 13 of their last 14 La Liga matches against Bilbao.

Team Reviews
Celta are unbeaten in their last four La Liga home matches (2W 2D) since mid-February, and it was obvious they scored 3+ goals in two games, and scored less than 1.5 in two matches. It’s also important to note that these fixtures between Athletic Bilbao and Celta Vigo don’t regularly produce many goals. Celta has scored less than 1.5 goals at home in 13 of their last 14 La Liga matches against Bilbao.

Athletic won the King's Cup this season, which gave them an automatic qualification to participate in the Europa League next season. However, after they managed just one win in their last five league matches, they are now technically unlikely to finish in the top four in La Liga to qualify for next season’s Champions League as they are eight points behind Atletico Madrid with three games left. Despite their inconsistency, they managed to score in 8 of the last 9 matches. Therefore, Athletic Total Goals; over 0.5 in the upcoming meeting looks like a sure thing.

Editorial prediction
At the moment, there are no clear favourites in this match. This is largely due to the fact that Athletics do not see enough importance in the game. In such a situation, it is worth paying attention to small markets. And here, the Total Corners; under 9.5 played in 6 of their last 7 head-to-head La Liga matches, which will be our key bet.