Who: Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao
What: Spain’s La Liga
Where: Camp Nou, Barcelona
When: Saturday at 4:15pm (15:15 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 12:15 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.
Barcelona will return to competitive action at their famous Camp Nou stadium on Saturday for the first time in two-and-a-half years when they host Athletic Bilbao.
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The match will take place in front of a crowd of only 45,401 as renovations are not yet complete, but at least it’s a return home after playing most of their recent games at the city’s Estadi Olimpic.
Barca will hope for a Nou Camp boost as they chase league leaders Real Madrid. The Catalans can provisionally go top of La Liga on goal difference if they beat Bilbao, although Madrid will be in action against Eibar on Sunday.
Athletic Bilbao, meanwhile, are seventh in La Liga with 17 points after five wins, two draws and five losses. A narrow 1-0 win over Real Oviedo 1-0 last weekend meant they avoided a fourth straight defeat, with the Basque club in decidedly mixed form so far this season.
Return to Camp Nou
A series of delays means Camp Nou is reopening a year after it was originally slated to, following a 1.5 billion euro ($1.75bn) transformation beset by construction chaos.
The stadium will eventually have space for 105,000 fans when the top tier is completed.
Barcelona have also received the green light from UEFA to host Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou in the Champions League on December 9.
The Spanish champions were forced to play two matches at their 6,000-capacity Johan Cruyff training ground stadium in the first weeks of the season after failing to get the permit they needed for Camp Nou due to safety reasons.
The previous iteration of Camp Nou was built in 1957 and had a capacity of 99,000.
Camp Nou ‘will definitely help us’
With three international breaks disrupting the opening months, Barca boss Hansi Flick now has the chance to knuckle down and find solutions to his side’s problems.
They have shipped 15 goals, more than nine of the 10 teams beneath them, while the attack has also struggled to ignite in the way it did in Flick’s debut year.
Returning to their home is one of several reasons for Barca to believe the coming weeks will be positive.
“(Playing at Camp Nou) will definitely help us … for the club’s future, it’s very important, I congratulate everyone who has worked on it,” said Flick.
In Barcelona’s prior outing, they beat Celta Vigo 4-2 in Galicia, with a wild first half giving way to a far more controlled second, which might indicate the direction his team need to take.
“The second half gives us confidence for the next matches and this is what we need,” said the coach.
Barca’s high-line causing sleepless nights
Flick hopes that confidence is what the team needs to be able to execute their high-line defence to perfection, as they did for a long period last term.
“I always think to say something about the experts, former players, former coaches, but I will not do it, (it makes) too much noise for us,” said Flick, showing he has heard the criticism regularly aimed at him over Barca’s defensive woes.
The club have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of the nine games they have played across all competitions since goalkeeper Joan Garcia was injured.
Barcelona centre back Gerard Martin said he finds it really hard to sleep after the stress of games.
“With the level of focus and stress involved, it takes hours before I can finally switch off,” he said.
Bilbao ‘not dwelling’ on bad results
Athletic Bilbao full-back Inigo Lekue said stopping teenage star Lamine Yamal would be a priority for his side.
“It’s a very demanding game. They have players of the highest calibre, among the best in Europe and the world, and lately we haven’t had much luck,” he said.
“Lamine is one of those players who can make a difference, and we’ll try to stop him from doing so on Saturday.”
Lekue lamented that away fans have been banned for attending the game as the section separating them from the home fans has not been completed yet.
“Being the club that we are, many of our members who usually travel are family and friends. It’s a shame that we won’t be able to count on their support this time,” he said.
Lekue said it was important to keep perspective over the club’s mixed run of results.
“Bad runs are what people outside the club focus on, but we don’t dwell on them. We focus on each game as a unique match, regardless of statistics,” he said.
Head-to-head
The two clubs have faced each other a whopping 244 times, with Barcelona winning 124 of those games, Athletic winning 80, while 40 ended as draws.
Barca have won nine of their last 11 La Liga games against Athletic, most recently a 3-0 victory in Bilbao in May courtesy of a Lewandowski brace and a Dani Olmo penalty.
Each of Athletic’s last four victories over Barcelona has been in cup ties – most recently a 4-2 home win in the Copa del Rey in January 2024.
Athletic’s last La Liga victory over Barcelona was in August 2019, when a stunning overhead kick by Aritz Aduriz won the game for the Basque club 1-0.
Barcelona’s team news
Yamal is back in training after undergoing a groin procedure, which led him to miss Spain’s qualifiers this week, and is set to feature against Bilbao.
First-choice keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and key midfielder Pedri remain unavailable due to injury.
However, Barca’s exciting winger Raphinha has recovered from a hamstring issue, and goalkeeper Joan Garcia is expected to start after overcoming a knee problem.
Frenkie de Jong is suspended, so Marc Casado is set to replace him in midfield – if he can overcome a groin issue of his own.
Barcelona’s predicted starting XI
Joan Garcia; Eric Garcia, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Casado, Olmo, Lopez; Yamal, Lewandowski, Rashford
Athletic Bilbao’s team news
Inaki Williams, Unai Eguiluz and Maroan Sannadi remain sidelined with injuries, while Benat Prados is a long-term absentee due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament. And Yeray Alvarez is serving a 10-month ban for a failed drug test.
Attacking midfielder Oihan Sancet has returned to training following an injury and could feature, while star winger Nico Williams scored on his return from injury against Real Ovideo and is set to start against Barca.
Athletic Bilbao’s predicted starting XI
Simon; Berchiche, Laporte, Vivian, Gorosabel; Palace, Ruiz de Galarreta; Nico Williams, Sanchez, Berenguer; the cross
