Barcelona hosts Athletic Bilbao

Barcelona hosts Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou on Tuesday in a match from the 31th round of Spanish La Liga.

 

For the Catalan giants this game comes just few days after their dissapointing 0-0 draw against Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. For a first time since the restart of the league Barca lost points, which put their leading position in the league in a danger.

 

Nothing worked for Barcelona on Friday in the Andalusian capital. The manager Quique Setien left Antoine Griezmann and Ansu Fati on the bench, opting to use Luis Suarez and Martin Braithwaite in attack. Griezmann entered the pitch in the second half, but he was unable to help the team to score a winning goal.

 

Barcelona could have lost this match as well. Ocampos and Reguilon had good opportunities to win the game for Sevilla, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen saved their shots.

 

We expect that Quique Setien will make some changes in the line-up. Antoine Griezmann and Ansu Fati could start the game against Athletic, while Arthur is another option in midfield. Setien can’t use Sergi Roberto, who is still recovering from an injury.

 

Athletic Bilbao are unbeaten since the restart of the league, doing two draws and winning once. This helped the Basques to climb up to 9th place in the standings.

 

In the previous round Athletic secured their 10th win for the season. Gaizka Garitano’s team hosted Real Betis at the San Mames Barria and celebrated a 1-0 win. The centre back Inigo Martinez scored the only goal in the game after just seven minutes of playing. Inigo Cordoba provided the assist.

 

Barcelona are favourites against Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou, even when the fans are not there. The Catalans must fix their mistake from the match against Sevilla, because the title race with Real Madrid is really intense.