Sporting vs Athletic Bilbao

Marcelo Bielsa's side have been the entertainers in this season's Europa League yet Adam Bate thinks they could face a tricky test when they visit Sporting Lisbon.It’s an all-Iberian line-up for the Europa League semi-finals with Sporting Lisbon the only non-Spanish team still in the competition.They host Athletic Bilbao in the first leg at the Estadio Jose Alvalade and will no doubt feel they need to take a lead to Spain if they are to progress. Sporting are at 17/10 (2.70) with William Hill to win here.Athletic’s run to the semi-final has been spectacular at times. Marcelo Bielsa’s men dumped favourites Manchester United out of the competition, playing some phenomenal football, before putting six past highly-fancied Schalke over two legs of their quarter-final.Athletic are also 17/10 (2.70) with William Hill to notch up another away win in the Europa League. The draw is available at 21/10 (3.1).Athletic’s Fernando Llorente is the favourite to open the scoring and it’s little surprise. The tall striker has had a pivotal role in the club’s Europa League campaign – scoring in both wins against Manchester United and bagging a brace at Schalke. He’s a 9/2 (5.5) shot to open the scoring.Ricky van Wolfswinkel has been a regular scorer for Sporting in his first season since joining from Utrecht. The Dutch international forward has netted five goals in the club’s Europa League campaign and is 5/1 (6.0) to score first in this one.In the other markets, Athletic are a clear ‘overs’ team – they had seven La Liga games in a row feature three or more goals at the start of the year.But that is reflected in the prices and the savvy punter may consider the less high-profile form of the home side.Sporting have gone eight games without conceding a goal at home, dating back to the start of November. Moreover, 14 of their last 16 games have featured two goals or fewer.As a result, backing under 2.5 goals at 10/11 (1.91) with William Hill is the pick in this one.For the value bet, it’s still just too tempting to come down in favour of an Athletic goal in this one. Manchester City couldn’t score here in the last 16 but Athletic’s goals record is impressive – they’ve netted in 25 of their last 27 games.The value bet is to take the industry-best price of 6/1 (7.0) with William Hill for a 1-1 draw.