After securing qualification in the Champions League in midweek, Barcelona will face one of their toughest fixtures in La Liga with a visit to San Mamés to face Marcelo Bielsea’s Athletic Bilbao. The Basque outfit didn’t start the season well, but they finally found some form over the past few weeks and will as always provide a very tough challenge to the defending champions. Athletic are one of the greatest sides in Spain’s history (in fact, along with Barcelona and Real Madrid, they remain the only side never to have been relegated) and visiting the San Mamés is always one of the toughest challenges in the league. Even Barcelona and Real Madrid regularly drop points in the Basque country.

Barcelona remain unbeaten this season in all competitions, but other than the Super Cup against Real Madrid, this might very well be the toughest test to that invincibility yet. Pep knows that better than anyone and has been preparing this match very carefully, even resting some key player in the midweek fixture against Viktoria Plzen.

Athletic Bilbao
After a terrible start to the season, Bilbao are now finally playing to their potential and haven’t lost any of their last six league matches (three wins and three draws). Under Marcelo Bielsa, Athletic are playing a more possession-based style, as opposed to their traditional physical style, and the Argentine’s new ideas and football philosophy finally seem to be yielding the desired results, as the team keeps improving with each passing match.

In their midweek Europa League game, Athletic travelled to Austria and got a 1-0 win over Salzburg, courtesy of an Ander Herrera goal, thus moving one step closer to the knockout rounds. Their injury situation has finally become more pleasant too, as all of Bilbao’s star players (Llorente, Herrera, Muniain, Javi Martinez) are fit and ready to face Barcelona on Sunday.

Athletic tend to make life very difficult for Barcelona and their recent performances suggest that they will do the same here. Like every team facing the Catalan juggernaut, they won’t have much of the ball, but they have the weapons to hurt Barcelona on the break. Young Spanish starlet Iker Muniain has established himself as one of the deadliest wingers in the league, while Fernando Llorente remains an extremely prolific striker. They haven’t been great defensively under Bielsa so far, which they will need to work on quickly if they wish to defeat Barcelona, but they have the players and the crowd to upset the champions; the atmosphere at San Mamés is surely the most intimidating of any La Liga ground, the crowd is really the 12th player when Bilbao play at home. Pep Guardiola and his Dream Team will  definitely have their work cut out this weekend.

Probable Lineup: Iraizoz(GK); Aurtenetxe, Toquero, San José, Iraola; Iturraspe, Javi Martinez, Susaeta, Ander Herrera, Iker Muniain; Fernando Llorente

FC Barcelona

Things are going as usual in the capital of Catalunya. In the past two official games, Barcelona scored nine goals and conceded none. Victor Valdés has kept nine straight clean sheets and now holds the club record with 877 minutes (and counting) without conceding. Lionel Messi scored two hat tricks and he now has 22 goals (and 11 assists) in 17 games this season and 202 goals in his Barcelona career at the tender age of 24.  In addition, Barcelona are undefeated in all competitions since April, as they haven’t lost any of their past 23 official matches. It’d an understatement to say that things are going well for Barcelona. As in the majority of the past three years, things are almost too perfect to be true.

However, Pep Guardiola knows perfectly well that the club can’t afford to rest on their laurels. The Barcelona boss is aware of how difficult this Bilbao match will be and has been preparing it for a while now. Key players like Xavi, Iniesta and Villa were rested in midweek in order to be in perfect condition for the San Mamés clash. Alexis Sanchez is finally back from injury and has been given a few minutes in Czech Republic, and he is now another option at Guardiola’s disposal. Other than Pedro Rodriguez, every first team member is available at the moment.

Knowing how difficult and how important this fixture is (especially considering Real Madrid’s great form of late), Pep will surely field the strongest XI at his disposal. Isaac Cuenca has made the most of his chances so far and has really impressed, but he should start this match on the bench, as the more seasoned players will be required to beat Bilbao.

Probable Lineup: Victor Valdés(GK); Eric Abidal, Javier Mascherano, Gerard Piqué, Daniel Alves; Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernandez, Andrés Iniesta; Cesc Fabregas, David Villa and Lionel Messi

Match

Tough match ofcourse!
. I do not expect VV to continue his 9-game run of clean sheets . But our forward will be to hot for their defence to handle.
Prediction 1 - 3

Definitely a tough match. Bielsa is fast transforming Athletic into a beastly side. They're unbeaten in 9 games in all competitions and they've had wins against moneybags PSG and Atletico Madrid.
Their front four of Muniain, Susaeta, Ander and Llorente is very fearsome.
I expect a Barca win but it would be hard fought.

I have always loved this bielsa of a guy right from his time coaching Argentina to korea/japan 2002. He has really transformed this team and i can't wait to watch this match, I hope they win or atleast pull a draw.

while la liga may have two world class teams (RM & Barca), the lopsided revenue structure of the league makes it impossible for the other teams to keep up.
it is not entertaining anymore when RM and Barca fight for #1 and #2 spot while the rest are left fighting for the remaining spots.

Tough match it will be,esp wit d fact dat barca have'nt hit top gear on the road dis season.

The match promises to be everything other than a walk in the park. Goodluck to our boys. Hope we win this one.

will messi score another hattrick we shall see tonight,

athletico bilbao is a great team, bielsea was a wonderful coach, san mames ground is electrifying but with barcelona nothing is impossible. Barca fans be rest assured, its another cleansheet.

There goes Valdes' clean sheet.
Goal! 1-0. Ander Herrera. Bilbao in front.

Fabregas 1-1.

Excellent first half: intense, exciting, with chances for both sides. Credit for Athletic for marking our midfield so well.

The rain's not helping Barca at all.

Gosh! Athletico scored their second goal

I m waiting 4 d final score.

2-2 for now, Messi as usual

Phew! That was close. We're still unbeaten. The rain def didn't help matter.
Great game all the same. 'El Loco' is fast transforming Athletic. Let's hope they keep this up.

That Bilbao defender messed up big time. . .

It would have been nice to see how the game would have turned out on a normal game pitch.
As it was, it looked more like a game of water polo, and a comedy of errors. The first two goals were okay, but the last two were as a result of rain-forced mistakes. However, any game between Bilbao and Barca is always full of fireworks, just like the Espanyol-Barca derby. Me I haven't really seen any improvement in Althletic. Most likely Real will crush them in San Sebastin, they're a more physical side than Barca are.

Just like last year, Amorebieta got sent off. Luckily, it happened very late in the game this time, but it still helped Barca to equalize. If it had happened 15 minutes earlier, Bilbao would have lost the game.