Athletic Club are the fifth best team in terms of goals conceded per match in the top European leagues after the first eight matches of LaLiga Santander 2021-22 – nearly a quarter of the way through the season.

Only Sevilla, Chelsea, Manchester City and Napoli, with three goals conceded -one less than Athletic- have better goals against ratios, 0.375 goals per game, than Athletic’s 0.5.

There are currently nine teams in LaLiga with an average of one or fewer goals against per game. Athletic, with an average of half a goal per match, are second only to Sevilla. Behind Los Leones, Villarreal have conceded five with a ratio of 0.625, Atletico Madrid six with 0.75.

Furthermore, Real Sociedad and Espanyol have let in seven and eight respectively, both having played one fixture more, with ratios of 0.778 and 0.889. Meanwhile, Barcelona, Betis and Rayo average one goal conceded per game.

In the Premier League, Brighton have retrieved the ball from the back of their net just five times, Liverpool six, Brentford seven and Wolves eight, giving them ratios of 0.625, 0.75, 0.875 and 1 goal conceded per game respectively.

In Serie A, Milan have conceded seven times at 0.875 and Torino eight with one per game. In the Bundesliga, the best defensive side are Freiburg with six goals conceded and 0.75 goals per game, while Mainz 05, Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig have let in eight goals, one per league fixture on average.

Finally, in Ligue 1, Nice stand out with five goals against in nine matches at an average of 0.556 goals per game. They are followed by Stade Rennais, who have conceded nine times in 1o matches, and PSG with 10 in 10.

LEAGUE	TEAM	MATCHES	GOALS AGAINST	AVERAGE
ESP	SEVILLA	8	3	0.375
ENG	CHELSEA	8	3	0.375
ENG	MANCHESTER CITY	8	3	0.375
ITA	NAPOLI	8	3	0.375
ESP	ATHLETIC	8	4	0.500
FRA	NICE	9	5	0.556
SPA	VILLARREAL	8	5	0.625
ENG	BRIGHTON	8	5	0.625
ESP	ATLÉTICO	8	6	0.750
ENG	LIVERPOOL	8	6	0.750
GER	FREIBURG	8	6	0.750
ESP	REAL SOCIEDAD	9	7	0.778
ENG	BRENTFORD	8	7	0.875
ITA	AC MILAN	8	7	0.875
ESP	ESPANYOL	9	8	0.889
FRA	RENNES	10	9	0.900
FRA	PSG	10	10	1.000
ESP	BETIS	9	9	1.000
ESP	RAYO	9	9	1.000
ESP	BARCELONA	8	8	1.000
ITA	TORINO	8	8	1.000
GER	BAYERN MUNICH	8	8	1.000
GER	RB LEIPZIG	8	8	1.000
GER	MAINZ 05	8	8	1.000
ENG	WOLVES	8	8	1.000