Athletic Club, among the best defences in Europe’s top leagues

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.