FC Barcelona 4-0 Athletic Club: Barça thrash Bilbao in Camp Nou Return

FC Barcelona continue their impressive home form in La Liga as Hansi Flick’s side completely dismantles Bilbao in the long-awaited return to the Camp Nou.

Barcelona thrashed Athletic Club, scoring four and keeping a clean sheet, which Hansi Flick will be impressed with as his side’s last clean sheet came in a 2-0 win to Getafe on 21 September.

As for Bilbao, their loss makes it three consecutive losses in La Liga, accumulating a total of eight goals conceded in these defeats. Also, Valverde’s side has now lost six games in La Liga this season, dropping down one position to 8th, level on points with Getafe but behind on goal difference.

Match Events - As it happened

Despite the Camp Nou having half of its capacity filled, the stadium was roaring and as it should after an overdue return to the home of Barcelona, giving the home side an extra teammate.

Inside four minutes, Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring with a low and powerful shot to Unai Simón’s nearpost that was simply too strong for the Athletic Club goalkeeper.

This goal came from Bilbao’s failure to clear their lines as Barça's defender, Gerard Martín, pressured opposing winger, Álex Berenguer’s who was then tackled by Eric García and the ball scrambled its way through to Lewandowski, who, as we know, finished rather emphatically.

Barcelona kept knocking with a huge chance to double their lead in the 19th minute after a beautiful curved pass by Ferran Torres was met by the run of Fermín López, whose touch drifted wide and shot straight at the legs of Unai Simón.

It wasn’t long after till Barcelona scored after a fantastic, well-worked counter-attacking team goal that saw Ferran Torres one-on-one with Unai Simón. Torres simply took it past Simón and converted into Bilbao’s empty net, but unfortunately, this goal was ruled out as the lineman’s flag went up for offside, which was deemed as the correct call.

Athletic Club had two key chances in the first half, both coming within close timeframes, in which they really should have equalised and levelled the scoreline.

The first chance saw Oihan Sancet float a pass to Nico Williams, who nodded it down to Unai Gómez, giving him a lot of space to pick his target. The 22-year-old did not convert his chance, striking his effort straight at the Barcelona goalkeeper, Joan García.

Then, around the 40-minute mark, Athletic Club opened up the Barcelona defence on the left-attacking side of the pitch as a well-weighted through ball from Berenguer found the run of left-back, Yuri Berichiche, who pulled the ball back to Nico Williams, but the Bilbao winger failed to hit the target, attempting to beat Joan García at his near post.

Just before the half-time whistle, during additional minutes of stoppage time, Barcelona doubled its lead. Lamine Yamal played an exquisite first-time pass with the outside of his boot, his trademark technique, that perfectly found the run of Ferran Torres, who finished his chance after Simón failed to be strong enough to save the shot, similar to Lewandowski’s opener.

Hansi Flick’s side came out strong in the second half, after a successful press against the Athletic Club’s defence saw Barcelona play through the two centre-backs and defensive midfielders, as Eric García’s pass was deflected off Bilbao defender Vivian to fall to the run of Fermín López, who finished neatly to give Barça their third goal.

To make matters worse for Athletic Club, Oihan Sancet’s foul on Fermín López was reviewed by VAR after obtaining a yellow card from referee José María Sánchez Martínez due to an intentional kick in the back of the opposing midfielder’s legs. This led to VAR deciding that Sancet was to be sent off, reducing Bilbao to 10 men.

A series of chances followed from then on from both sides, with key highlights, including Barça midfielder Dani Olmo’s chance drive just wide of the post, Bilbao defender Vivian's header that was tipped over by Joan García and two similar shots from Lamine Yamal, who cut inside on to his left foot and shot seeing one hit the target and the other blaze over the bar.

Ending the scoring, shy of the 90-minute mark, came from some fantastic individual work from Lamine Yamal near the halfway line, who played an expertly threaded through ball in the path of Ferran Torres to put the forward one-on-one, once again, to get his second and Barça’s fourth of the evening.

Match Ratings

• Player of the Match (POTM): Ferran Torres 9
• Team Ratings: Athletic Club 4 | Barcelona 9
• Manager Ratings: Ernesto Valverde 4 | Hansi Flick 9
  
  

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Athletic Club Ratings

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Up Next

Barcelona are immediately back in action tomorrow for the UEFA Champions League against European rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. This is one of the greatest match-ups in European history as the two sides display some contempt for each other because of some memorable nights between the pair.

For Athletic Club, they head to Czechia’s capital to take on Slavia Prague, also in the UCL, which is a must-win as they currently sit outside the play-offs and need to bounce back after a poor spell of results. Valverde and his side will be feeling the pressure, especially because of what is to come in La Liga, as after their next domestic fixture against Levante, Bilbao play Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid on the bounce.

There are some huge ties to come for both sides and in general across the footballing world as we head into the Christmas season, so understandably, tickets are in high demand, and the best place to get yours is 1BoxOffice.