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#2 Athletic Bilbao's barnstorming first-half
To apportion Barcelona's hardships of the first-half solely on Valverde's tactical tweaks would be a criminal injustice to the efforts put in by Eduardo Berizzo's men. Set out in a daunting 4-2-3-1 shape, Bilbao pressed high from the word go and completely ran over Barcelona in the magical first 10 minutes, probably their best 10 minutes of the season so far.
The hosts were forced to play out from the back with patient passing but barely threatened during the opening exchanges. The Lions carved open the backline to create numerous opportunities in the first half, and should've been up by more than just 1-0 at the break.
Inaki Williams was a thorn in Barcelona's face with his constant runs in behind the defence, while Garcia, as aforementioned, was just terrific and single-handedly mauled the midfield battle. Oh, and Williams missed a sitter in the 10th minute too.
Bilbao were head and shoulders above the Blaugrana in the first half and always looked the likelier of the two to score first. And they did, right before the break when Marcos sneakily stole clear of the back four and acrobatically connected to Susaeta's cross to break the deadlock. The lead was very much deserved, but the only downside is that it should've been more than just one.
