2 weeks ago
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Who: Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao
What: Spain’s La Liga
Where: Camp Nou, Barcelona
When: Saturday astatine 4:15pm (15:15 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll person each the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 12:15 GMT successful beforehand of our unrecorded substance commentary stream.
Barcelona volition instrumentality to competitory enactment astatine their celebrated Camp Nou stadium connected Saturday for the archetypal clip successful two-and-a-half years erstwhile they big Athletic Bilbao.
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The lucifer volition instrumentality spot successful beforehand of a assemblage of lone 45,401 arsenic renovations are not yet complete, but astatine slightest it’s a instrumentality location aft playing astir of their caller games astatine the city’s Estadi Olimpic.
Barca volition anticipation for a Nou Camp boost arsenic they pursuit league leaders Real Madrid. The Catalans tin provisionally spell apical of La Liga connected extremity quality if they bushed Bilbao, though Madrid volition beryllium successful enactment against Eibar connected Sunday.
Athletic Bilbao, meanwhile, are seventh successful La Liga with 17 points aft 5 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses. A constrictive 1-0 triumph implicit Real Oviedo 1-0 past play meant they avoided a 4th consecutive defeat, with the Basque nine successful decidedly mixed signifier truthful acold this season.
Return to Camp Nou
A bid of delays means Camp Nou is reopening a twelvemonth aft it was primitively slated to, pursuing a 1.5 cardinal euro ($1.75bn) translation beset by operation chaos.
The stadium volition yet person abstraction for 105,000 fans erstwhile the apical tier is completed.
Barcelona person besides received the greenish airy from UEFA to big Eintracht Frankfurt astatine Camp Nou successful the Champions League connected December 9.
The Spanish champions were forced to play 2 matches astatine their 6,000-capacity Johan Cruyff grooming crushed stadium successful the archetypal weeks of the play aft failing to get the licence they needed for Camp Nou owed to information reasons.
The erstwhile iteration of Camp Nou was built successful 1957 and had a capableness of 99,000.
Barcelona clasp an unfastened grooming league astatine Camp Nou connected November 07, 2025 [David Ramos/Getty Images]Camp Nou ‘will decidedly assistance us’
With 3 planetary breaks disrupting the opening months, Barca brag Hansi Flick present has the accidental to knuckle down and find solutions to his side’s problems.
They person shipped 15 goals, much than 9 of the 10 teams beneath them, portion the onslaught has besides struggled to ignite successful the mode it did successful Flick’s debut year.
Returning to their location is 1 of respective reasons for Barca to judge the coming weeks volition beryllium positive.
“[Playing astatine Camp Nou] volition decidedly assistance america … for the club’s future, it’s precise important, I congratulate everyone who has worked connected it,” said Flick.
In Barcelona’s anterior outing, they bushed Celta Vigo 4-2 successful Galicia, with a chaotic archetypal fractional giving mode to a acold much controlled second, which mightiness bespeak the absorption his squad request to take.
“The 2nd fractional gives america assurance for the adjacent matches and this is what we need,” said the coach.
Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski, left, scored a hat-trick against Celta Vigo [Salvador Sas/EPA]Barca’s high-line causing sleepless nights
Flick hopes that assurance is what the squad needs to beryllium capable to execute their high-line defence to perfection, arsenic they did for a agelong play past term.
“I ever deliberation to accidental thing astir the experts, erstwhile players, erstwhile coaches, but I volition not bash it, [it makes] excessively overmuch sound for us,” said Flick, showing helium has heard the disapproval regularly aimed astatine him implicit Barca’s antiaircraft woes.
The nine person failed to support a cleanable expanse successful immoderate of the 9 games they person played crossed each competitions since goalkeeper Joan Garcia was injured.
Barcelona centre backmost Gerard Martin said helium finds it truly hard to slumber aft the accent of games.
“With the level of absorption and accent involved, it takes hours earlier I tin yet power off,” helium said.
Bilbao ‘not dwelling’ connected atrocious results
Athletic Bilbao full-back Inigo Lekue said stopping teenage prima Lamine Yamal would beryllium a precedence for his side.
“It’s a precise demanding game. They person players of the highest calibre, among the champion successful Europe and the world, and lately we haven’t had overmuch luck,” helium said.
“Lamine is 1 of those players who tin marque a difference, and we’ll effort to halt him from doing truthful connected Saturday.”
Lekue lamented that distant fans person been banned for attending the crippled arsenic the conception separating them from the location fans has not been completed yet.
“Being the nine that we are, galore of our members who usually question are household and friends. It’s a shame that we won’t beryllium capable to number connected their enactment this time,” helium said.
Lekue said it was important to support position implicit the club’s mixed tally of results.
“Bad runs are what radical extracurricular the nine absorption on, but we don’t dwell connected them. We absorption connected each crippled arsenic a unsocial match, careless of statistics,” helium said.
Head-to-head
The 2 clubs person faced each different a whopping 244 times, with Barcelona winning 124 of those games, Athletic winning 80, portion 40 ended arsenic draws.
Barca person won 9 of their past 11 La Liga games against Athletic, astir precocious a 3-0 triumph successful Bilbao successful May courtesy of a Lewandowski brace and a Dani Olmo penalty.
Each of Athletic’s past 4 victories implicit Barcelona has been successful cupful ties – astir precocious a 4-2 location triumph successful the Copa del Rey successful January 2024.
Athletic’s past La Liga triumph implicit Barcelona was successful August 2019, erstwhile a stunning overhead footwear by Aritz Aduriz won the crippled for the Basque nine 1-0.
Barcelona’s squad news
Yamal is backmost successful grooming aft undergoing a groin procedure, which led him to miss Spain’s qualifiers this week, and is acceptable to diagnostic against Bilbao.
First-choice keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and cardinal midfielder Pedri stay unavailable owed to injury.
However, Barca’s breathtaking winger Raphinha has recovered from a hamstring issue, and goalkeeper Joan Garcia is expected to commencement aft overcoming a genu problem.
Frenkie de Jong is suspended, truthful Marc Casado is acceptable to regenerate him successful midfield – if helium tin flooded a groin contented of his own.
Barcelona’s predicted starting XI
Joan Garcia; Eric Garcia, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Casado, Olmo, Lopez; Yamal, Lewandowski, Rashford
Athletic Bilbao’s squad news
Inaki Williams, Unai Eguiluz and Maroan Sannadi stay sidelined with injuries, portion Benat Prados is simply a semipermanent absentee owed to a torn anterior cruciate ligament. And Yeray Alvarez is serving a 10-month prohibition for a failed cause test.
Attacking midfielder Oihan Sancet has returned to grooming pursuing an wounded and could feature, portion prima winger Nico Williams scored connected his instrumentality from wounded against Real Ovideo and is acceptable to commencement against Barca.
Athletic Bilbao’s predicted starting XI
Simon; Berchiche, Laporte, Vivian, Gorosabel; Jauregizar, Ruiz de Galarreta; Nico Williams, Sanchez, Berenguer; Guruzeta
English (US) ·