Athletic Club vs Celta Vigo predictions and match preview for Sunday’s LaLiga fixture. Read on for analysis, the head-to-head, team news and predicted lineups as Celta travel to San Mames.
| Date | Sunday 17th April 2022 |
| Kick-Off | 18:30 (local time) |
| Stadium | San Mames |
| Competition | LaLiga |
Athletic Club vs Celta Vigo Preview
San Mames sees Athletic play host to Celta Vigo this weekend. The hosts are eyeing up a late push for European qualification, although much will depend on the outcome of next week’s Copa del Rey Final with Athletic hoping Betis can see off Valencia which should see 7th offer a path into Europe.
Athletic Club may sense they missed an opportunity last weekend to steal a march on their main rivals for 7th place. With Villarreal resting virtually their entire first XI ahead of their Champions League trip to Munich, Athletic could only take a 1-1 draw from their trip to the Ceramica despite taking the lead in the 1st Half through Raul Garcia. As a result, they remain a point behind Villarreal heading into this matchday but the Yellow Submarine’s continued European distractions may present Athletic with a real opportunity to clinch Conference League qualification, should Betis win the cup which is clearly far from a certainty.
That’s out of Athletic’s hands but this game and a trip to Cadiz next week does offer them opportunities to put points on the board and they take reasonable form into these games with 8 points from their last 5 outings. There is clearly some talent emerging at San Mames and this season has seen the likes of Oihan Sancet, Dani Vivian and Unai Vencedor emerge as fairly regular starters while Nico Williams and Nico Serrano have shown flashes of their promise. The development of those players will be a major positive for Athletic to look back on this term, even if they don’t ultimately get the reward of European football.
For Celta Vigo, it’s a bit harder to find positives and they’ve slipped backwards if anything having narrowly missed out on European qualification last season. It’s difficult to put your finger on quite why that has happened given summer arrival Javi Galan has been very solid at left-back while Chacho Coudet clearly remains happy with fellow new boy Matías Dituro’s contribution in goal.
Perhaps Iago Aspas being another year older is a factor in that slight decline. He has still netted 13 goals in LaLiga, 6 more than any other player involved in this match. Aspas may even go on to better his tally of 14 from the previous 2 seasons, however his overall contribution hasn’t been quite as great this time around and he has only managed 4 assists to date compared to 13 last term.
Head to Head
- Last 6 Competitive Meetings: 2 Athletic Wins, 2 Celta Wins, 2 Draws.
- Athletic won 1-0 in Vigo earlier this term.
- However they’ve only won 1 of their last 4 home games against Celta.
- Celta were 2-0 winners here last season.
Team News
| Injured | Doubtful | Banned | |
| Athletic | Martinez, Lekue | ||
| Celta | Mallo |
Latest LaLiga Injuries & Suspensions
Possible Lineups
Athletic Club vs Celta Vigo Predictions
Score Prediction: Athletic Club 2-1 Celta Vigo
It’s just 1 point from 4 games for Celta and it feels as though their season may now be winding down to a fairly uninspiring finale. Athletic have that possible motivation of European qualification still and that may just help drive them on to a narrow victory here.
PLEASE NOTE – Our LaLiga predictions are not betting tips. No profits are guaranteed if you’re using them to bet on football. If you are gambling, do so responsibly and never stake more than you can afford to lose. BeGambleAware.
Mark Sochon is an experienced football writer and editor of LaLiga Expert. Based in Madrid, he has covered La Liga and Spanish football for many years. He also covers Spanish and European football for Goal and Betfred, while his work has previously been published by the Guardian and World Soccer.