Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Barcelona: 5 reasons why Barcelona lost the match | LaLiga 2019/2020

#5 Overall, Barcelona were extremely poor

Athletic Club v FC Barcelona - La Liga

Coming in as defending champions and having spent over €250m on new arrivals, Barcelona were generally expected to triumph against Athletic Bilbao.

It is one thing to lose having given your best, but it is an entirely different matter to lose with your players offering next to nothing on the field of play, and the latter is the exact scenario the Blaugrana found themselves in.

As touched on earlier, the midfield failed to pull its weight, while their defense and attack were also poor.

Only a handful of Barcelona players impressed, with Marc Andre ter Stegen, Rafinha and Ousmane Dembele among those who showcased their abilities while their teammates toiled in vain.

Though Barcelona controlled most of the ball, seeing 73% of possession, most of their passes were sideways harmless balls, with the Athletic Bilbao midfielders ensuring they kept their visitors away from their danger areas.

In total, the Catalans managed just two shots on target to their opponents five, while they failed to significantly test Unai Simon in the Bilbao goal.

This was rather a shocking return from a side that had talents like Luis Suarez, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele on display, and given their shambolic displays, the result was a fair justification of proceedings over the course of the 90 minutes.