Barcelona 2-0 Athletic Bilbao: 5 Talking Points

#2 Aduriz and Williams should have started for Athletic Bilbao

Inaki Williams should have started for Athletic Bilbao

In a team that looked gravely lacking in the creative department, Ziganda bafflingly chose to rest two of their most creatively capable players- Aritz Aduriz and Inaki Williams.

The evening worked out in a better manner than it should have for Ziganda however as Barcelona could only put 2 past them.

Besides that, Athletic Bilbao never really tested ter Stegen or forced him to do anything of note as they moved about all laboured and uninspired like only college students should on a Sunday after a Saturday of heavy drinking.

But as soon as Aduriz and Williams were introduced, Athletic Bilbao looked far better going forward and they were, in the very least, running at the Umtiti and Pique or hoofing the ball into the centre and getting the shot away.

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.

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Edited by Zeeshan Ali