That’s all from this one. Cheers for reading.
There is more, more, more from us though, you lucky people. Head over to read about Rafa Benitez’s first league game in charge of Real Madrid, as they face Sporting Gijon. Jacob Steinberg has all you need for that one.
And that’s that. A pretty scrappy affair all told, but Barcelona will be pretty happy with the way they dug out the victory, particularly given the injuries they had to contend with, both Dani Alves and Sergio Busquets limping from the field. At the very least, it was better than the last time they visited the San Mames, when Athletic hammered them 4-0 in the Supercopa.
Full-time: Athletic 0-1 Barcelona
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins + 3: Laporte gets the ball around 30 yards out and launches a powerful shot at goal, but it couldn’t have been more perfectly placed for Bravo if he’d planned it himself, and he catches the ball while barely having to move his hands.
90 mins + 1: Suarez makes friends with the turf after a tap on his ankle by Elustondo. He milks it as you know he will, just to tick the clock down a little more.
90 mins: Four minutes of added time to be played.
89 mins: Looks like Barca are now trying to shut this one down in their own individual way, with death by passing.
87 mins: Magnificent stuff from Messi, who by his standards has been pretty quiet tonight. He gets the ball in the inside-right channel, pirouettes past one defender, skips past the next, then another, nutmegs another then tries a shot (with Suarez probably in a better position) but there’s nowhere near enough power behind it, and Iraizoz saves.
85 mins: The ball is in the net! But Suarez was offside from Messi’s pass. It was actually hard to tell if it went in via an outrageous chip from Suarez, around 30 yards from goal, or an equally outrageous own-goal. Shame, either way.
83 mins: Now Iniesta is down, after being caught on the knee by a follow-through by Elustondo. He’ll be OK, which is just as well considering Sandro was their third and final change.
82 mins: Change for Barca, with Rafinha - who’s been anonymous in the second half - replaced by Sandro.
80 mins: Great chance for Athletic! A cross from deep on the right looks perfect for Sabin arrowing in from the left, but Gomez heads it, falling backwards, instead. The ball then falls back to Gomez, who again was leaning back and as such skies the half-volleyed shot way over the bar.
78 mins: Aduriz drives towards the box, but Vermaelen goes in with a challenge that cleans out everything - ball, player and whatever else you’ve got.
77 mins: Roberto gets into the box and just has to skip past one more man to get a shot in, or square to Messi, but he does neither and it’s cleared. Athletic attack at pace and Aduriz looks like he is in, but he lays it back to Susaeta who balloons the thing high and wide.
74 mins: Bit of handbags between Gurpegi and Suarez - the latter gets a booking, but the former seemed to take a big swipe at his opponent, without making contact. An entertaining tussle, that one.
72 mins: Great chance for Athletic as Aduriz is set free....but the linesman’s flag is up. That was marginal at best, but the play continued and if the call had gone the other way Vermaelen chopped Aduriz down in the area. Could’ve been dangerous for Barca.
70 mins: Gomez slips over on the Athletic left, then as Rakitic steals in to nick the ball he legs the Barca man up, and earns himself a yellow card.
69 mins: When Busquets went off, Luis Enrique threw his arms in the are in the manner of a man who wonders ‘What next?’ This Barca side is rather down to the bare bones now, and since they can’t buy anyone to patch themselves up, no wonder he’s exasperated.
67 mins: That actually looks pretty nasty for Busquets. Marc Bartra, owner of the most piercing eyes and sharp cheekbones in Christendom, will come on. Presumably he’ll go into defence and Mascherano will push into midfield.
66 mins: Busquets wins a free-kick and is writhing in pain, but that looked like one of those block tackles that goes awry. He went in with Aduriz and caught a hefty blow to the ankle, and it looks like he’ll have to go off.
64 mins: Vermaelen celebrates his first league start for Barcelona by going right through the back of Aduriz, earning himself a flash of yellow from the ref’s pocket.
62 mins: Double change for Athletic - Rico and Sabin are off, replaced by Ibai Gomez and Carlos Guerpegi.
Meanwhile, a suggestion for the Guardian word cloud here.
@NickMiller79 Searching 'Lee Cattermole' would get you 'needless', 'senseless', and 'shaking his head'.
— Jon Taylor (@jonnalism_uk) August 23, 2015
60 mins: Close from Barca! Roberto makes tracks down the right and gets into the area, then unleashes a thumping shot that smacks the crossbar and goes over. Great effort that earns a thumbs up from Luis Enrique.
59 mins: Barcelona get away with another bit of rather risky play as Bravo passes out to Rakitic around 30 yards from his own goal, he gets in something of a tizzy and rather gratefully goes down after a hint of shirt-pull from Eraso.
56 mins: That, incidentally, was the first goal from open play of the Spanish season. This is the sixth game.
54 mins: And Barca are underway. Iniesta skims a crossfield pass out to Alba on the left of the Athletic penalty area, he puts a first-time cross in and, for reasons best known to themselves, the defence decided not to mark Suarez who, about eight yards from goal, larrumphs the ball into the net. Good play, but rotten defending.
GOAL! Athletic 0-1 Barcelona (Suarez 54)
Woof!
53 mins: Michael Brown has been on, and wondering about our words: ‘Seeing “Lovely pass .. by Iniesta..” at 42min makes me wonder if anyone has done any stats analysis on the guardian’s minute by minute vernacular. I would be curious to see which players came top for links to certain words. I think Iniesta would be competitive on ‘lovely’, while I imagine Pepe would surely have ‘red card’ sewn up and Berba would be in a league of his own for ‘lazily’, ‘insouciant’ and ‘strolled’.’
Any further nominations along those lines?
51 mins: Balenziaga is off, and Boveda is on, which looks like it will signal a reshuffle in defence. Looks like he’ll play in the middle, with Laporte switching to left-back.
50 mins: Looks like Balenziaga has done himself some form of ouchies, pulling up while challenging for a ball in the left-back berth with Suarez. The Barca man initially thought his opponent was accusing him of something unfortunate, so waved him away.
48 mins: So what you’re saying is Barca had most of the ball in the first half, then...?
Athletic Club 0-0 Barcelona HT: Shots(OT) 5(1) - 7(2), Possession 24% - 76%, Rating 6.57 - 6.58 http://t.co/VBe6eQPq1z
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) August 23, 2015
47 mins: Sabin attempts to make tracks down the Athletic left, but Roberto displays that he’s not a total mug in defence by easing him out.
46 mins: Anyway, enough of that. The game has started again.
The teams are out, and we are all set for another 45 minutes. Well, maybe not ‘we’, but the 22 players out there in the Basque country. Although if we’re talking a collective human experience, we’re all one consciousness in several different bodies, aren’t we? So basically I’m Leo Messi. The bad news for him being that Leo Messi is also me.
Half-time: Athletic Bilbao 0-0 Barcelona
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
45 mins + 3: Messi goes for a volleyed pass looking for Rafinha on the left, but it goes awry, and that’s it for this half.
45 mins + 2: Athletic doing a reasonable job of containing Barca, but haven’t created a great deal themselves.
45 mins: Barca attempt to inject a bit of spice into this game by passing it around their own defence like a big bunch of dafties, very nearly giving it away on the edge of the box. But, they just about get away with it in the end.
44 mins: Free-kick for Athletic about 40 yards from goal, which Benat clips into the box...but Rico and at least one of his colleagues is flagged off. Careless, that.
42 mins: Lovely pass out to the right by Iniesta for Messi, who flicks it over for Suarez, but some good defending by Elustondo to make up for that sticky few minutes earlier prevents the shot from troubling the Athletic goal.
41 mins: Sabin tries a low corner to the near-post, but Rakitic is wise to the attempt and clears for another. That one is higher, but Bravo catches with some ease.
40 mins: Rico gathers a knock-down from Aduriz, but Mascherano ushers him away from goal. A cross then comes in from the left, but Vermaelen puts a diving header behind for a corner.
38 mins: After much faffing around, Messi does exactly the same thing from the retake, then launches the rebound high into the crowd.
Messi now missed 14 of his 63 penalties taken for Barca [22%] says @pedritonumeros
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) August 23, 2015
36 mins: Messi hits the free-kick straight into the wall....but the referee rules that Eraso handled it. That looked harsh, but the Athletic man goes into the book anyway. Another free-kick, a few yards closer to goal...
35 mins: Close for Barca! That’s the nearest we’ve come to a goal, as Roberto crosses low for Suarez, who tries to sweep it home but doesn’t get enough on it, Iraizoz saves and Rafinha bashes the rebound across goal. The ball is half-cleared, then Busquets flings himself to the ground just outside the area and wins a free-kick. Messi lining it up...
34 mins: Not a brilliant few minutes for Elustondo. He goes into the book for an enormously clumsy challenge on Suarez, barging into the back of the Uruguayan.
33 mins: Iniesta gathers the ball in the left channel and tries a shot from way out, but that floats high and wide of the goal.
32 mins: Apparently that was the 14th penalty miss of Messi’s career. A chink in his armour, perhaps.
MESSI MISSES!
Well, to be more accurate Iraizoz saves, diving low to his right and pushing a fairly weak penalty wide of the post.
PENALTY BARCELONA!
Elustondo makes a complete mess of a bouncing ball, which Suarez nicks only for the defender to take him down. Not sure if he got the ball too, but the penalty is given.
28 mins: Alba tries to create something himself with a sneaky run around the back of the Athletic defence, but Iraizoz gets there before him and gathers. At the other end, Sabin is almost in on the left but Mascherano runs through and cuts it off.
27 mins: Rakitic skims a long pass from centre to the right win looking for the run of Roberto, but it’s too strong and skips out of play. It’s reasonably remarkable that a game featuring a few of the best players in the world can be quite so tedious, but this is so far.
24 mins: Benat plays an unusual cross in with the outside of his right foot, which Aduriz rises and wins at the back post, but his header goes wide of goal. Still the best chance of the game so far, mind.
23 mins: Suarez has a crack at defending, but it doesn’t work out especially well as he concedes a free-kick in a dangerous position out on the Athletic left, barging over Eraso.
21 mins: Barcelona claim wildly for a penalty, and they had a case after Elustondo handles the ball in the area from a Messi header, but in a case of ‘two wrongs...’, the cross from which the situation arose came from Roberto, who was a good yard out of play while doing so.
18 mins: Quite the emotional rollercoaster: Alves is indeed going off, and is replaced by Sergi Roberto. He’s usually a midfielder but has filled in at right-back, so presumably he’ll stick there again, although they do have the option of slipping Busquets back into defence.
17 mins: Oh, well, he’s up and about now. The old drama queen.
16 mins: Dani Alves is down, rolling around in some pain, clutching his groin. And not in a funny way. He just looked like he over-stretched himself going for a tackle, and the chances of him continuing look rather slim at this stage.
15 mins: A shot! Well, the ball travelled forward and was technically on target. Sabin directed it towards the Barca goal with the strength of a mouth cough, and Bravo gathered with little fuss.
14 mins: Benat fouls Rakitic. Not anywhere particularly dangerous or interesting, but nothing else is happening so it’s probably best to keep you updated with even these rather meagre updates.
12 mins: Ooooh, hard man Leo Messi barges Balenziaga in the back down on the touchline, then gives a thumb-up to the referee in lieu of an apology/trying to get away with the whole thing. He does, of course.
10 mins: Fair to say that, aside from that thumping challenge, not much has happened so far. The ball has barely entered either final third, let alone either penalty area.
8 mins: More passing. Passing, passing, passing. Then Aduriz puts in a hefty challenge on Iniesta, but actually comes off worse as the Barca man’s shoulder thuds into his chest. He’s winded, and has to have treatment, but he should be OK to continue.
6 mins: Sabin Merino barrels in from the left flank, from where he’s followed by Dani Alves and is bundled to the ground, but despite the whistles of a bunch of Basques, nothing is given in their favour.
4 mins: Athletic win it back! But De Marcos ends a potential attack by giving the ball away down the right.
3 mins: The first three minutes have largely consisted of Barcelona knocking it around in a leisurely, almost detached manner, as if they actually do think these games are decided by possession stats rather than goals.
1 min: And we’re away. The new San Mames is looking a treat, as Athletic get us going. If you will.
Intimidation tactics from Athletic, here:
Athletic show off the Super Cup trophy before kick-off https://t.co/D5ElSkdFGc
— Jack Lang (@jacklang) August 23, 2015
Some pre-match reading. Here’s a piece from the Guardian Sport Network on the title-free Barcelona team of the 1970s and 80s, by Craig McCracken:
Barcelona’s thrilling Uefa Super Cup victory over Sevilla last Tuesday earned them their fourth trophy of the calendar year, a figure that could rise to six with the Spanish Super Cup and World Club Cup still to be awarded. A new generation of football fans is growing up watching the club as a Lionel Messi-powered trophy vacuum that glides serenely across the footballing landscape effortlessly sucking up every piece of silverware in its path. Bedazzled by the glamour and success, many of these fans will be oblivious to some of the club’s somewhat chaotic and comedic history from the not too distant past.
It wasn’t just that Barcelona managed but a solitary title in the quarter of a century between Helenio Herrera in 1960 and Terry Venables in 1985; it was the titles they could have won had they not contrived to regularly grasp crushing defeat from the jaws of inevitable victory. And never was the club’s long-standing fragility better demonstrated than during the climax to the 1981-82 La Liga season.
Compared to the skilful and cosmopolitan game we know today, Spanish football back in the 1970s and 1980s was a radically different affair – less tiki-taki and more kicky-hacky. Much of La Liga’s star quality was contracted out to big-name foreigners then as now, but there the parallels stop. Contemporary Spanish players complement the foreign stars with skill, craft and guile; back then they tended to be cast more in the supporting role of ruthless henchmen tasked with doing the team’s dirty work.
Team news
Athletic Bilbao
Iraizoz; De Marcos, Laporte, Elustondo, Balenziaga; Beñat, Rico; Susaeta, Eraso, Sabin Merino; Aduriz. Subs: Boveda, Ibai, Iago Herrerin, Gurpegi, Viguera, Lekue, Aketxe.
Barcelona
Bravo; Alves, Mascherano, Vermaelen, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Luis Suárez, Rafinha. Subs: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Munir, Sandro, S. Roberto, Cámara, Gumbau.
Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande (Madrid)
Updated
Preamble
Barcelona are back, back, back...but it’s all falling apart before they have even begun! Neymar has one foot out the door, Pedro has gone, Leo Messi keeps popping up in daft adverts. What a mess! And now they’re returning to the scene of their HUMILIATING defeat in the Supercopa a couple of weeks ago. It’s all over, take the Nou Camp down, dig up Las Ramblas, halt work on La Sagrada Familia, stop selling those baguette sandwich things.
Or something like that. The Barcelona team that will take the field for the first half of this season is a slightly curious one to make any sense of, given they have lost a couple of players and haven’t been able to replace them. Or, at least, not replace them now. A few players have come in who will need to take a seat until they’re allowed to register in January, so for now they’re left with what they have.
And as we all know, what they have is rubbish.
For Athletic’s part, what’s a realistic expectation for them this season? A Champions League place? The cup? An improvement on last season’s seventh place must be on the cards, even if most of those who will challenge them have improved over the summer.
Ernesto Valverde is expecting a backlash of some description from Barca, anyway, after the Supercopa defeat. He said:
It will be a very tough game, but we will do our best to get the result we are looking for. There shouldn’t be any great surprises in terms of our team selection but we could try some tactical changes to try to catch them out. However, with Barca, no matter how hard you try to do your thing, all you can end up doing is what they allow you to do.
“But we will go for the win. In these types of games, it’s not only the physical state that’s important, the mental state counts for a lot, too.
“The two Super Cup games give us a slight advantage because we were capable of facing up to them effectively, although pulling one over on them again won’t be so easy.”
Anyway, should be a good one. Stay tuned. I insist. Or else.
Kick-off: 5.30pm BST.
Nick will be here soon enough. While you wait, here is Sid Lowe’s season preview to keep you entertained.
Some film stylish promos, others play football matches. Rarely has that tired old cliche been more apt. Rarely has it been apt at all, in fact, but this time it kind of was. The timing was perfect, the promise tangible. One hundred and 20 minutes, nine goals, three astonishing, almost identical free-kicks in 14 minutes, mouths hanging open just a little further each time the ball flew into the net, and a winning goal so late it happened the day after the game began: theEuropean Super Cup was a fantastic advert for Spanish football.
Perhaps it needed to be after two months away, with most teams touring abroad not at home, and with the opening day of a new season approaching quietly in a month where “closed” signs are common city sights. It felt a bit like Spanish football had begun to be left behind again – they were a fortnight and many millions behind England, La Liga clubs having spent a third as much as their Premier League competitors, for a start – but then Spanish football stepped on to the pitch. European Cup holders Barcelona and Europa League holders Sevilla came together in Tiblisi, where it finished 5-4, with a 115th-minute winner from Pedro.
Television rights deals were done late domestically, not just internationally, where Sky’s continued coverage was only confirmed in the last week; platforms have changed and so has the distribution of games. It is no exaggeration to say that most fans here have not yet worked out where they will be watching games this season – on telly at least; they already know they can forget about planning to actually go to games – and that contributed to the sense of drift, to that lack of buildup. Yet the date was approaching, the day it all begins again, and with the European Super Cup, its arrival was announced. And how.
