Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona live blog, full-time: Aduriz wins season opener with bicycle kick

FULL-TIME, Athletic 1-0 Barcelona: Barça played a horrible game, Athletic were awesome, and the better team won. Happy Friday!

GOAL, Athletic 1-0 Barcelona (Aduriz 89’): The legendary Aritz Aduriz comes on as a substitue and scores a bicycle kick with his first touch of the match. Wow.

SECOND HALF KICKOFF! Athletic 0-0 Barcelona: Rakitic for Aleñá to start the second half. Let’s see if it helps.

HALFTIME, Athletic 0-0 Barcelona: This was a terrible first half from Barça and a shot by Rafinha into the crossbar was the only highlight of the entire period. There are bad passes, touches, shots and runs all over the pitch, and Athletic actually deserve to be ahead. Not a good start to the season so far.

KICKOFF! Athletic 0-0 Barcelona: Come on, boys! Let’s start the season on a high!

LINEUPS

BARCELONA

Starting XI: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Roberto, De Jong, Aleñá; Dembélé, Suárez, Griezmann (4-3-3)

Bench: Iñaki Peña, Umtiti, Firpo, Busquets, Rakitic, Rafinha, Pérez

ATHLETIC BILBAO

Starting XI: Unai Simón; Capa, Yeray, Unai Núñez, Yuri; Unai López, Dani García; De Marcos, Raúl García, Muniain; Iñaki Williams (4-2-3-1)

Bench: Herrerín, Vivian, Balenziaga, Beñat, Sancet, Larrazabal, Aduriz

WELCOME TO SAN MAMÉS! The spectacular home of Basque giants Athletic Bilbao is the site of the opening match of the 2019/20 season of La Liga between the hosts and two-time defending champions Barcelona in what promises to be a fantastic start to the Spanish League campaign. Barça don’t have their injured captain Lionel Messi but have DSG up front, and the trio along with Frenkie De Jong will look to win three points against a team that always causes Barça plenty of trouble in this stadium. This will no doubt be a great night of football and you are welcome to join us to follow and comment all the action. LET’S LIVE BLOG!

(Note: the comments will be open only when the team news come out, because our commenter people love commenting and sometimes there are too many comments in the comments section)

MATCH INFO

Competition/Round: 2019/20 La Liga, Matchday 1

Date/Time: Friday, August 16, 2019, 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Saturday)

Venue: San Mamés, Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain

Referee: Carlos Del Cerro Grande

HOW TO WATCH, STREAM LA LIGA

How to watch on TV: beIN SPORTS (USA & Canada), ITV 4 (UK), Not Available (India), SuperSport 7 (Nigeria), Movistar LaLiga (Spain), others

How to stream: beIN SPORTS CONNECT (USA & Canada), FuboTV (USA), ITV Hub (UK), Movistar+ (Spain), others

Matchday Thread Rules

We don’t have a lot of rules here, but there are a few things to keep in mind when joining our matchday threads:

Even if the referee sucks or we lose the game, be careful with the swearing. It’s just unnecessary. Also, don’t discuss illegal streaming links. Those who do it will be warned, and those who post links will be instantly banned. Finally, be nice to each other. This is a Barcelona community and we don’t need to offend one another.

Have fun with the game! Forever and ever, no matter the competition, VISCA EL BARÇA!