High-flying Barcelona’s pursuit of a coveted top-four La Liga finish continues as they entertain Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou.
Fresh from ousting Napoli from the Europa League play-off round, courtesy of midweek’s overwhelming 4-2 win in Italy, Barcelona will be looking to pick up where they left off in La Liga. A comprehensive 4-1 victory away to Valencia last time out maintained Barca’s unbeaten league start to the new calendar year (W4, D2). It also means that the Catalans have only lost one of their 12 La Liga matches under Xavi’s guidance (W7, D4). There’s been drastic improvement in Barcelona’s attacking set-up following a raft of high-profile January singings, with the ‘Blaugrana’ scoring 2+ goals in each of their last three La Liga outings after netting precisely once per game in the previous four in a row. Brimming with confidence, Barca are pre-match favourites to extend their impressive 18-game undefeated La Liga streak versus Basque rivals (W14, D5).
However, the hosts can ill-afford to underestimate Athletic Bilbao, who brushed aside arch-rivals Real Sociedad with a mammoth 4-0 victory last time out, posting their third win in four La Liga games (L1). But ‘Los Leones’ have earned a reputation as the ‘entertainment killers’ and for a reason, having produced a league-lowest average of 1.38 goals scored/conceded per away La Liga fixture this season. Indeed, Marcelino Garcia Toral’s men have shipped a league second-low eight goals across their 13 La Liga travels this term, conceding more than once per match just once so far. Bilbao will have to keep things tight again if they are to stand any chance of snapping their humiliating 19-game winless La Liga run against Barcelona (D3, L16). Despite being an omnipresent fixture in Spain’s top-flight this century, Bilbao last won a league game at Camp Nou in 2001!
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