Saturday's European tips: Marvellous Mbappe to steal the show again

Best bets

Andrej Ilic to assist a goal vs Bayer Leverkusen
2.30pm Saturday
1pt 14-1 bet365

Mallorca or draw double chance vs Athletic Bilbao
LaLigaTV, 5.30pm Saturday
2pts 6-4 BoyleSports

Kylian Mbappe to score two or more goals vs Villarreal
Disney+, 8pm Saturday
2pts 3-1 general

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Saturday's European football predictions

The sacking of Erik ten Hag has improved Bayer Leverkusen, who are unbeaten since his dismissal. 

However, the remnants of his defensive ineptitude clearly remain as they are yet to keep a clean sheet under Kasper Hjulmand and Union Berlin, who scored four at Frankfurt in their last away game, should capitalise on that. 

Key to their success at Eintracht was Andrej Ilic, who laid on four assists for his teammates. 

The Serbian forward now has five assists for the season and thanks to the excellent movement of Oliver Burke and Ilyas Ansah, there is a fair chance he adds to that tally at Leverkusen. 

He is around 6-1 to provide an assist with most bookies but a mammoth 14-1 with bet365. That outrageous price should not be missed. 

Athletic Bilbao’s woeful run continued with a 4-1 hammering at Dortmund on Wednesday, making it six losses and no wins in seven for Ernesto Valverde’s men. 

The Basque outfit have scored just two goals in that run and their sole draw came against La Liga basement boys Girona, so it is a surprise to see them as such strong favourites for the visit of Mallorca. 

Mallorca start the round second-bottom but have shown improvement in recent weeks, drawing with Atletico Madrid and beating in-form Alaves in their last three games. 

They avoided defeat in both meetings with Athletic last term and look a big price to repeat the feat.

Athletic are struggling to score but Kylian Mbappe certainly isn’t. The Frenchman’s midweek hat-trick against Kairat made it 13 goals in eight Real Madrid appearances this term and he could help himself to a couple more against Villarreal. 

The Yellow Submarine have lost their usual defensive solidity in recent weeks, keeping just two clean sheets in seven games, and red-hot Mbappe, who bagged a brace in the last head-to-head, will be on hand to pounce on any sloppiness at the back. 

Read more top European football tips:

La Liga weekend betting guide – Predictions, odds & best tips 

Bundesliga weekend betting guide – Predictions, odds & best tips 

Serie A weekend betting guide – Predictions, odds & best tips 

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