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Barcelona had a horrendous start to their LaLiga title defense as the champions suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Athletic Bilbao at San Mames. For the home side, the only goal was scored by Aritz Aduriz.
In the first half of the game, the home side started with more intensity and had more control over the proceedings. Inaki Williams was denied by Marc-Andre ter Stegen twice.
Luis Suarez got injured in the 37th minute but before that, the Uruguayan hit the post from very close in when he should have scored. Rafinha was substituted in place of Suarez and the Brazilian hit the bar with a great effort. The first half ended all square.
In the second half of the game, Ivan Rakitic was brought in by Ernesto Valverde in place of Carles Alena and the Blaugrana started dominating possession. They didn't create many chances though and only registered shots from a distance.
At the 89th minute, Bilbao substitute, Aduriz popped up to score an absolute blinder. It was an overhead kick from the veteran Spaniard and that goal was enough to give Bilbao the three points.
In this article, we are going to take a look at the three reasons why Barcelona lost the game:
#3 A rusty and inexperienced Barcelona starting XI
Ernesto Valverde started this game with a midfield three of Sergi Roberto, Frenkie de Jong and Carles Alena. The young Alena had a very bad game as he failed to make any sort of impact on the game.
Also, after Luis Suarez got injured, Rafinha was brought in place of him and the Brazilian played on the left wing, a position he doesn't deputize in. Also, not starting either of Ivan Rakitic and Sergio Busquets meant that Barcelona had a very inexperienced midfield.
Another factor for the rustiness of the Barcelona players could be the fact that Athletic Bilbao had a longer pre-season than the Spanish champions. This meant that Bilbao came into this game better prepared.
#2 Failure to convert possession into clear-cut chances
Despite being second-best in the first half, Barcelona hit the woodwork twice. The first chance went to Luis Suarez who hit the woodwork from very close in, and the second was a brilliant shot from Rafinha that required a finger tip save from Unai Simon.
But in the second half, when they were clearly dominating the game, the Blaugrana couldn't manage to create a single clear cut opportunity.
After bringing on Ivan Rakitic for Carles Alena at the start of the second half, the Blaugrana were dominating the home side in terms of possession but all that dominance didn't lead to anything significant.
Barcelona had almost 72 percent possession in the game, but of the 11 shots on goal, they only managed to have 2 on target and both those shots resulted in easy saves for the Bilbao goalkeeper.
It was clear that Barcelona were lacking creativity. With Lionel Messi injured, Ernesto Valverde needs to find the creative force in this team as for now, it seems like Barcelona's attack is still too dependent on the Argentine superstar.
#1 Aritz Aduriz's special goal and Bilbao's defensive resistance
Athletic Bilbao managed to pull off an upset on the first day of the new LaLiga season and the reason they could achieve that was due to their brilliant shape in defense.
In the first half, Bilbao were clearly the better team and they should have scored through Inaki Williams, but they didn't and that meant the home side had to be resilient in the second half.
Lining up in a 4-2-3-1, Bilbao gave absolutely no space to Barcelona's attackers and they kept them starved throughout the second half. Playing on the counter-attack, Bilbao scored very late in the game, thanks to their veteran Spanish striker, Aritz Aduriz.
Bilbao's right-back, Ander Capa found Aduriz in the box and the 38-year-old scored with a stunning overhead kick. What a moment it was for the Spaniard as he is going to retire at the end of this season!
All in all, it was a brilliant performance from the home side and they deserved this victory.
