Athletic Bilbao will go head-to-head with Barcelona in the La Liga matchday 2 at San Mames on Saturday. The kick-off is at 22:00 CEST.

Preview

After finishing 10th in the 2020/21 La Liga season, Athletic started off their new campaign in the Spanish top flight with a goalless stalemate at Elche on Monday. Marcelino's men now face a huge task of facing Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in their next two league games. Moreover, the Basques will be without a number of key players in the forthcoming encounters.

The Catalans, for their part, managed a 4-2 victory over Athletic's fellow Basques Real Sociedad in their La Liga opener thanks to goals from Gerard Pique, Sergi Roberto and Martin Braithwaite's brace last Sunday. That was Barca's first official match without Lionel Messi who moved to Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer earlier this month and it would be fair to say that the Blaugrana fared pretty well without their living legend.

Team news

As mentioned Yuri Berchiche, Peru Nolaskoain, Kenan Kodro, Inigo Cordoba, Alex Petxa and Ander Capa will not feature for Athletic this time around through respective injuries while Ronald Koeman's side will travel to Bilbao without Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Oscar Mingueza, Ansu Fati, Sergio Aguero and Ousmane Dembele due to the same reason.

Prediction

Athletic will certainly be motivated to get even with Barca for the painful 4-0 loss in the Spanish Cup final in April when they take on the Catalans at San Mames on Saturday. Moreover, there will be no Messi in Koeman's set-up to save the day for the Blaugrana. Thus, let's say that the Basques are more than capable of causing major problems to Barca - something they proved in last season's Spanish Super Cup final when they defeated the Catalans 3-2 with Lionel in the squad in January.

Tip

Both teams to score at 1.79 with 1XBET.