PREVIEW | Athletic Club v FC Barcelona

After the 4-2 defeat of Real Sociedad on the opening day, Barça face another Basque opponent in their first road trip of the campaign. Athletic Club are the side they comfortably beat 4-0 in last season’s Copa del Rey Final, but they have not always had such an upper hand in recent encounters.

The Lions of Bilbao knocked Barça out of the cup the season before last, and in January of this year defeated the blaugrana in the Spanish Super Cup Final.

How to watch

The game is kicking off at 10.00pm CEST local time, while this guide will not only help you work out what time that is where you are but will also help you find a way to see the game on TV.

If you can’t see it for whatever reason, don’t panic! Here in our Match Center we have all the build-up, in-game commentary and post-match analysis. We have a broadcast from the Barça TV studio, commentary on Radio Barça and live text and stats to make sure you don’t miss a thing. Oh, and you can also get all the news on our social media, of course!

Last ten league meetings at San Mamés

2011: Athletic 2-2 Barça
2013: Athletic 2-2 Barça
2013: Athletic 1-0 Barça
2015: Athletic 2-5 Barça
2015: Athletic 0-1 Barça
2016: Athletic 0-1 Barça
2017: Athletic 0-2 Barça
2019: Athletic 0-0 Barça
2019: Athletic 1-0 Barça
2021: Athletic 2-3 Barça

The last meeting at San Mamés was a cracker. Iñaki Williams gave Athletic the lead after just 3 minutes, but Pedri and Leo Messi (2) turned the game around. However, a late goal from Muniain narrowed the gap to one goal and produced a nail-biting finale.

Did you know?

Barça have only won 27 of the 90 league games they have played at San Mamés, although since the new stadium was opened they have won five out of nine.

Including their 0-0 draw with Elche last week, Athletic have failed to score in their last four La Liga outings.

Watch out for Iker Muniain. Especially late on. With two goals and one assist, he has been involved in three of Athletic’s last six goals at home to Barça. And they’ve all come in the second half.

Raul García has also scored twice against Barça, but both goals came when he was wearing the shirt of Atlético Madrid.

Team news

Ronald Koeman has picked the exact same set of 23 players as for last week’s game with Real. Marc-André Ter Stegen trained with the team on Friday but is not quite ready to make his return, and Ansu Fati, Óscar Mingueza, Ousmane Dembélé and Sergio Agüero are also out injured.

Once again, Miralem Pjanic, Samuel Umtiti, Philippe Coutinho and Alex Collado miss out on a place.

Koeman says

The game: "Athletic have improved a lot. They had a six-week preseason and it shows … We played them four times last year so we know what to expect and we can’t do anything to surprise each other … We must avoid a physical game because that’s their strength and not ours.”

Martin Braithwaite: “Because of the club’s situation, we will listen to any offers. But Martin is very useful because he can play in different positions, and so I’d like him to stay.”

Pedri: “We have decided that the best thing would be for him to play tomorrow but then take a holiday for a fortnight.”

Philippe Coutinho: “He’s not in the squad because I think he needs another week to settle. But I am counting on him this season. We have lost goals without Messi and he’s the kind of player who can fill the gap.”

Gerard Piqué: “I’m surprised about all the fuss over Piqué. He took a couple of knocks but nothing major and he can play tomorrow, no worries.”

Marc-Andre Ter Stegen: “He needs to train more. We’ll have to wait and see when he is fit to play.”