At the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán on Saturday afternoon, Sevilla will play hosts to Ernesto Valverde's Athletic Club as the hosts try to sneak into a Champions League spot.
Los Rojiblancos are currently occupying the fifth spot in the Primera Division table, four points behind Atletico Madrid. Although they are on the outside looking in, Sevilla could possibly make the Champions League if Valencia slip up towards the end of this campaign. Carlos Bacca has been superb in front of goal this season, in 28 matches so far this season he has found the back of the net on 16 occassions. French striker Kevin Gameiro is a nice addition off of the bench and can provide a spark if Athletic happen to be trailing and can really pressure the opposition's back line.
The visitors have been on an amazing run lately picking up maximum points in their previous five matches after having a very poor start to the campaign. This run has shot them all the way up to the eighth spot in the table, five points behind Malaga. Throughout these last several matches, Athletic Club have played extremely well, scoring seven goals while allowing just two find their way into the back of the net. In their last match against, Almeria, two first half goals were good enough to hang on to the victory.
Bilbao will be without their backup goalkeeper today as Iago Herrerín has a thigh muscle strain and 20-year-old Alex Remiro will most likely be on the bench. For Sevilla, however, their injury issues are a bit worse as they are without several key footballers. Beto, Mariano Barbosa, Stephane MBia, and Sebastian Cristóforo are all missing for Unai Emery.
This is bound to be one of the better matches in Spain this weekend as these two sides are battling to get into a European spot. More is at stake for Bilbao as they are ten points behind Villarreal for that final Europa League place. It might be too late in the season to catch up but they have the attacking prowess to get at least four more wins in their remaining matches. Expect this match to be win by a lapse of concentration at the back as these two sides are very potent in the final third of the pitch.