Atletico to forge slender lead over ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ Athletic
Published:Athletic Bilbao are a team displaying two distinct faces in recent times; imperious at home and hapless on their travels.
Therefore, this trip to the Vincente Calderon in the Copa del Rey quarter-final first leg spells trouble once again for La Liga’s fourth-placed side.
Looking at the overall picture of this tie, Athletic’s stellar home form – where they’ve just won their last seven straight in all competitions – certainly gives them a real sniff at ousting the current holders.
However, their polar opposite away form – where the Biscay-based outfit are winless in four, losing three of those without registering a goal – means punters shouldn’t swerve the 4/11 on the Atletico home win.
Admittedly, these odds are hardly pulse-rate quickening, but predicting the scoreline can add some jazz to placing a bet on this headline Thursday night offering from Sky Sports.
In the league renewal of this very fixture in November, Diego Simeone’s title-chasers prevailed 2-0 and considering this opposition have only notched once in the last four encounters with Atleti, the 11/2 about it finishing this way again stands out.
A quick look at Atletico’s recently dwindling average of one goal per game from their last five, though, adds even greater pulling power to the 11/2 on a 1-0.
If the correct score market is still a little dicey for you, then why not cover all bases with the simple, yet highly plausible bet on the Atletico win to nil at 6/5.
Having saved his best goal-scoring exploits for this competition last season, Atletico’s 23-goal revelation of the current campaign,Diego Costa, has suffered a three-game drought for the first time all season.
It’s a teasing 5/2 that he slips the scoring shoes back on in this first leg by registering the opening goal of this contest.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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