Barcelona 2-0 Athletic Bilbao: 5 Talking Points

Modified Mar 18, 2018 19:25 GMT

Barcelona eased past Athletic Bilbao

#4 A tame Athletic Bilbao set themselves up to be swept away

The Bilbao defence struggled to cope with the Barcelona attackers

A part of Valverde's heart might harbour a bit of pain tonight as the same team he guided to Spanish Super Cup glory by schooling this Barcelona side 4-0 at the San Mames stadium looks a shadow of their former self 3 years later.

After tonight's defeat, they've slipped into the 13th place on the La Liga table and are having a terrible run in an already poor season.

The Athletic defence was often caught at sixes and sevens as Leo Messi and co. tested their mettle without offering a break. Paco Alcacer scored from near the penalty spot as Jordi Alba cut the ball back to him but even though there were 3 Bilbao defenders in the box, nobody was picking up the 24-year-old striker.

Ziganda's team look disjointed and are hardly showing any signs of getting any better in the recent future.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

Know More

Edited by Zeeshan Ali