Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao

Spotify Camp Nou forms the backdrop for Barcelona’s must-win La Liga clash against top-four hopefuls Athletic Bilbao.

Three unanswered first-half goals catapulted Barcelona to an overwhelming 3-0 home triumph over Villarreal in midweek La Liga action, helping them overcome a troublesome last week. Just days after a 3-3 draw with Inter Milan put a massive dent in Barca’s attempt to avoid suffering back-to-back Champions League group stage eliminations, Xavi Hernandez’s side fell to a morale-damaging 3-1 El Clasico defeat at Real Madrid. However, back to Camp Nou, where they’ve won five straight league matches since a goalless draw with Rayo Vallecano on the opening weekend, gives the Barcelona faithful plenty to look forward to. You’d have to go back to 2001 for the Catalan heavyweights’ last La Liga home loss to Bilbao, with the ‘Blaugrana’ racking up an eye-catching 20-game unbeaten home league H2H run since (W17, D3).

In the meantime, visiting Athletic Bilbao drew 2-2 at Getafe last weekend, taking their winless La Liga streak to three matches (D2, L1), their longest wait for a top-flight win since December 2021. Playing outside the Basque country has often been troubling for Bilbao, yet they’ve not lost any of their four away league fixtures this season (W2, D2). Ex-Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has turned Athletic’s fortunes around this season, guiding ‘Los Leones’ to their most prolific ten-game La Liga start since 1982/83 (19 goals scored). Back to Camp Nou, where he won consecutive La Liga titles in 2017/18 and 2018/19, Valverde will be looking to defy Bilbao’s woeful run of 17 defeats across their last 18 top-flight visits to this venue (D1). But the Spanish manager has lost a personal joint-high number of encounters against Barcelona (15).