Betting Tips: Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona

The Howtobet betting tips section will be filled up with Euro 2012 betting action, but before kick off in Ukraine and Poland we got a massive clash coming up in Spain. The final of his Majesty king Carlos Cup is being played at the home ground of Atletic Madrid (Vicente Calderon) 25-05-2012. These clubs are used to battling it out for glory in this cup, and last time they met up to duel for glory was in 2009. Then Barcelona won 4-1.

Team news

David Villa, Eric Abidal, Carles Puyol og Daniel Alves are said to be out of the Barcelona squad, and both Xavi will face a late check before given the green light. Iniesta, a previous doubt is said to be ready. Athletic Club is fielding their strongest side according to "el Loco".

The match up

This season they played a wonderful 2-2 game in Bilbao. Those who haven't seen that game should try to get hold of it. It was attacking football from the top shelf combined with excitement for the full 90 minutes. In the reverse meeting el Loco rested several players due to UEFA Europa League participation. His depleted team took a beating, but improved a lot when 2-0 down and with 2-3 of his top players coming off the bench.

The betting tips consideration

Loco Bielsa has rested key players several times in the latter stages of the season. They should be fresh. Muniain, Martinez, Llorente, Herrera and Susaeta are perhaps some of the brightest lights in Spanish football right now. For us Barcelona looks vulnerable in defence. Sure; they have excellent backup, but Puyol is the boss back there. Mascherano and Pique are great players but they lack leader skills. Alves has also been brilliant this season, he will be missed. This is the last game Guardiola will be on the bench for. He and Bielsa are very good friends, but the first mentioned coach will probably want to end on a high and friendly favors should not be something to contemplate on here.

The betting tips

This looks like a game that will be all about the goals. Athletic Club are great at going forward and with the obvious weakening of the Barca defence that is exactly what they will go at. (If they can get the ball that is). 2.15 on over 3.5 goals could definitely be worth a shot.

Also, we do think that Athletic Club will get one or two in the Barca net so backing them on the Asian Handicap @ +1.5 looks tempting. 2.15 is the current price available.

For the 1X2: We stay away. Barca is all class but at around 10x the stake we would rather back Bielsa and his team than the depleted Catalan giants.

Good Luck with your betting!