Spanish giants Barcelona will be looking to climb further up the table as they travel to Athletic Bilbao in a crunch La Liga tie. Athletic Bilbao welcome the Catalans to the San James on Wednesday night and will also be looking to have one over Ronald Koeman’s men.

The home side are currently sitting in 9th position in the standings but will be looking to use the home advantage to secure Bragging rights having dropped vital La Liga points in 11 out of the 17 games they have played so far in the league.

Barcelona, like their rivals, have shown discouraging signs of inconsistency so far this season and have won only half of the 18 games 17 games they have played so far this campaign. Barcelona have won back-to-back games on just two occasions so far this current term and have so far not won three games on the bounce. They are however unbeaten in their past 6 league games and that may provide them with some little confidence going into this fixture.

Bilbao won this same fixture last season by a slender scoreline of 1-0, thanks to Aritz Aduriz’s wonderful acrobatic strike. Here is a preview of the game which both sides will be looking to come out on top from.

 

Team News

Athletic Bilbao:

Bilbao do not have any new injury concern ahead of the game but will be missing the presence of as many as three important players on Wednesday night. Yerau Alvarez is out with a knock, Peru Nolaskoain has a knee injury, and Unai Lopez is still nursing his knee injury as well.

Predicted Lineup (4-4-2): Simon; Martinez, Nunez, Capa, Berchiche, Vesga, Berenguer, Dani Garcia, Muniain, Williams, Villalobre.

 

Barcelona:

Ronald Koeman also does not have fresh injury concerns but will be missing five first-team players in the clash. Ansu Fati, Philippe Coutinho and Gérard Pique are all ruled out and so are Umtiti and Sergi Roberto.

Predicted Lineup (4-3-3): ter Steven, Araujo, Dest, Alba, Lenglet, Pjanic, Pedri, de Jong, Messi, Griezmann, Dembele.