Athletic Bilbao Deepen Barcelona Woes With 1-1 Draw

By Nigel Philips

Athletic Bilbao has deepened Barcelona’s misery after holding the La Liga champions to a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou on Saturday.

Ernesto Valverde’s men lost their first game of the season at Leganes on Wednesday, and the redemption hunt on match day-7 nearly ended the same way in front of the 78, 015 people in the stands as they had to rally from behind to secure a late equaliser on home soil.

Barcelona still occupy the top spot on the 2018/19 La Liga table with 14 points, but that may change later Saturday evening when second-place Real Madrid, who are on 13 points, take on city rivals Atletico Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

Luis Suarez fired a free kick wide in the 7th minute before Inaki Williams opened the visitors’ account with a shot wide from close range in the 11th minute.

Inigo Martinez was forced out of the game after picking a foot injury in the 23rd minute and his place was taken by Peru Nolaskoain.

Unai Simon made a fine save to deny Suarez from scoring in the 26th minute after he tried to shoot to the middle of the post, ten minutes before Oscar De Marcos put the visitors ahead by latching onto a fine cross inside the box to hit the ball into the left corner of the post.

Philipe Coutinho saw his header saved by Unai Simon in the 44th minute, and Sergio Busquets replaced an injured Sergio Roberto in the 51st minute with Lionel Messi also coming on for Arturo Vidal four minutes later as Ernesto Valverde looked to strengthen both his midfield and attack.

Philipe Coutinho hit the belly of the crossbar in the 63rd minute after connecting well with Ousmane Dembele’s cross in the box, four minutes after which Athletic Bilbao boss, Eduardo Berizzo, made his second substitution by replacing Benat with Mikel San Jose.

De Marcos headed out Messi’s free-kick goal-bound strike in the 71st minute after the Argentine had directed a free-kick to the top corner in the 77th minute, and Eduardo Berizzo threw in his last dice three minutes later by replacing Inaki Williams with Aritz Aduriz.

Ernesto Valverde responded to Berizzo’s plan by replacing Osumane Dembele with Munir El Haddadi in the 80th minute, and the Spanish attacker rescued a point for the hosts eight minutes later with his first goal of the season by connecting Lionel Messi’s right-footed short-across into the net.

Bilbao attacked immediately after the restart, but Dani Garcia received a booking inside injury time for a foul on Gerrard Pique as he hit the Barcelona player’s leg in his haste to deliver a shot at goal.