Who: Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao
Content: Spanish La Liga
Location: Camp Nou, Barcelona
When: Saturday 4:15pm (15:15 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll be broadcasting everything on Al Jazeera Sports from 12:15pm Japan time, ahead of a live text commentary stream.
Barcelona will return to competitive action at the famous Camp Nou stadium on Saturday when they host Athletic Bilbao for the first time in two and a half years.
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The match will be played in front of just 45,401 spectators as renovations are not yet complete, but it will be a homecoming after at least playing most of the recent matches at the city’s Estadi Olympique.
Barça will be hoping for a breakthrough at Camp Nou as they chase league leaders Real Madrid. A win against Bilbao would allow the Catalans to provisionally lead La Liga on goal difference, but Madrid face Eibar on Sunday.
On the other hand, Athletic Bilbao are in 7th place in La Liga with 17 points with 5 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses. Despite avoiding a fourth straight defeat with a narrow 1-0 win over Real Oviedo last weekend, the Basque club are clearly in a mixed bag so far this season.
Return to Camp Nou
A series of delays means Camp Nou will reopen a year after originally planned, following a 1.5 billion euro ($1.75 billion) reconstruction that was hit by construction disruption.
When the top tier is finally completed, the stadium will have space for 105,000 fans.
Barcelona has also received permission from UEFA to welcome Eintracht Frankfurt to Camp Nou in the Champions League on December 9th.
The Spanish champions were unable to obtain the necessary permits for Camp Nou for security reasons, so they were forced to play two matches at the 6,000-capacity Johan Cruyff training ground stadium in the first weeks of the season.
The previous version of Camp Nou was built in 1957 and had a capacity of 99,000 people.
Camp Nou “definitely helps us”
Barça coach Hansi Flick now has the chance to find a solution to his team’s problems after three international suspensions in the opening months.
They have scored 15 goals, more than nine of the 10 teams below them, but have struggled to spark an attack like they did in Flick’s debut year.
Returning home is one of several reasons why Barça believe the coming weeks will be positive.
“[Playing at the Camp Nou]will definitely be good for us… It’s very important for the future of the club. I would like to congratulate everyone who has worked on this,” Flick said.
Barcelona’s last game, a 4-2 win over Celta Vigo in Galicia, saw a wild first half give way to a much more controlled second half, which may be an indication of the direction the team is headed.
“The second half gives us confidence for the next game, which is what we need,” the coach said.
Barça’s high line causes sleepless nights
Coach Flick is hopeful that confidence is what his team needs to be able to execute the high-line defense perfectly, as they did for extended periods last season.
“I always try to say something about experts, former players, former coaches, but I don’t do that because (it) makes too much noise for us,” Flick said, indicating that he hears the criticism regularly leveled at him about Barça’s defensive woes.
The club have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their nine competitive games since goalkeeper Joao Garcia was injured.
Barcelona centre-back Gerard Martin said it was really difficult to sleep after the stress of a match.
“Because it has to do with concentration and stress levels, it can take hours before you can finally switch off,” he said.
Bilbao ‘not obsessed’ with bad results
Athletic Bilbao full-back Iñigo Leque says stopping teenage star Lamine Yamal is the team’s priority.
“It’s a very demanding game. They have some of the best players in Europe and in the world, but they haven’t had much luck lately,” he said.
“Lamine is one of the players who can make a difference and we will stop him from doing so on Saturday.”
Lukoue lamented that away fans are prohibited from attending matches because the separation section from home fans has not yet been completed.
“For a club like ours, many of our members who normally travel are family and friends, so it’s disappointing that we can’t count on their support this time,” he said.
Luque said it was important to keep perspective on the club’s various outcomes.
“People outside the club focus on the bad goals conceded, but we don’t dwell on that. We look at each game as a unique match, regardless of the statistics,” he said.
direct confrontation
The two clubs have met 244 times, with Barcelona winning 124, Athletic winning 80 and 40 ending in a draw.
Barca have won nine of their last 11 La Liga matches against Athletic, most recently winning 3-0 against Bilbao in May with two goals from Lewandowski and a penalty from Dani Olmo.
Athletic’s last four wins against Barcelona have all come against Thailand in cup competitions, most recently a 4-2 home win in the Copa del Rey in January 2024.
Athletic’s last La Liga win against Barcelona was in August 2019, when Aritz Aduriz’s stunning overhead kick gave the Basque club a 1-0 victory.
barcelona team news
Yamal missed this week’s Spanish qualifiers after undergoing groin surgery, but has returned to training and is expected to feature against Bilbao.
First-choice keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and key midfielder Pedri remain sidelined due to injury.
However, Barça’s exciting winger Rafinha has recovered from a hamstring problem and goalkeeper Joao Garcia is expected to start after overcoming a knee problem.
With Frenkie de Jong suspended, Marc Casado will replace him in midfield if he can overcome his groin problem.
Barcelona’s expected starting lineup
Joan Garcia. Eric Garcia, Araujo, Kvarsi, Balde. Casado, Olmo, Lopez. Yamal, Lewandowski, Rashford
Athletic Bilbao team news
Inaki Williams, Unai Eguils and Malone Sanadi remain sidelined due to injury, while Benat Prados is out for an extended period due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. And Yelai Alvarez was suspended for 10 months after failing a drug test.
Attacking midfielder Oyhan Sunset has returned to training from injury and could feature, while star winger Nico Williams returned from injury to score against Real Ovideo and is expected to start against Barça.
Athletic Bilbao’s projected starting lineup
Simon. Berchiche, Laporte, Vivian, Gorosabel. Yaureguizar, Luis de Galareta. Nico Williams, Sanchez, Berengar. Grzeta
