Who: <\/strong>Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao Barcelona will return to competitive action at their famous Camp Nou stadium on Saturday for the first time in two-and-a-half years when they host Athletic Bilbao.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The match will take place in front of a crowd of only 45,401 as renovations are not yet complete, but at least it\u2019s a return home after playing most of their recent games at the city\u2019s Estadi Olimpic.<\/p>\n Barca will hope for a Nou Camp boost as they chase league leaders Real Madrid. The Catalans can provisionally go top of La Liga on goal difference if they beat Bilbao, although Madrid will be in action against Eibar on Sunday.<\/p>\n Athletic Bilbao, meanwhile, are seventh in La Liga with 17 points after five wins, two draws and five losses. A narrow 1-0 win over Real Oviedo 1-0 last weekend meant they avoided a fourth straight defeat, with the Basque club in decidedly mixed form so far this season.<\/p>\n A series of delays means Camp Nou is reopening a year after it was originally slated to, following a 1.5 billion euro ($1.75bn) transformation beset by construction chaos.<\/p>\n The stadium will eventually have space for 105,000 fans when the top tier is completed.<\/p>\n Barcelona have also received the green light from UEFA to host Eintracht Frankfurt at Camp Nou in the Champions League on December 9.<\/p>\n The Spanish champions were forced to play two matches at their 6,000-capacity Johan Cruyff training ground stadium in the first weeks of the season after failing to get the permit they needed for Camp Nou due to safety reasons.<\/p>\n The previous iteration of Camp Nou was built in 1957 and had a capacity of 99,000.<\/p>\n With three international breaks disrupting the opening months, Barca boss Hansi Flick now has the chance to knuckle down and find solutions to his side\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n They have shipped 15 goals, more than nine of the 10 teams beneath them, while the attack has also struggled to ignite in the way it did in Flick\u2019s debut year.<\/p>\n Returning to their home is one of several reasons for Barca to believe the coming weeks will be positive.<\/p>\n \u201c[Playing at Camp Nou] will definitely help us \u2026 for the club\u2019s future, it\u2019s very important, I congratulate everyone who has worked on it,\u201d said Flick.<\/p>\n In Barcelona\u2019s prior outing, they beat Celta Vigo 4-2 in Galicia, with a wild first half giving way to a far more controlled second, which might indicate the direction his team need to take.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second half gives us confidence for the next matches and this is what we need,\u201d said the coach.<\/p>\n Flick hopes that confidence is what the team needs to be able to execute their high-line defence to perfection, as they did for a long period last term.<\/p>\n \u201cI always think to say something about the experts, former players, former coaches, but I will not do it, [it makes] too much noise for us,\u201d said Flick, showing he has heard the criticism regularly aimed at him over Barca\u2019s defensive woes.<\/p>\n The club have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of the nine games they have played across all competitions since goalkeeper Joan Garcia was injured.<\/p>\n Barcelona centre back Gerard Martin said he finds it really hard to sleep after the stress of games.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the level of focus and stress involved, it takes hours before I can finally switch off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Athletic Bilbao full-back Inigo Lekue said stopping teenage star Lamine Yamal would be a priority for his side.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very demanding game. They have players of the highest calibre, among the best in Europe and the world, and lately we haven\u2019t had much luck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cLamine is one of those players who can make a difference, and we\u2019ll try to stop him from doing so on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n Lekue lamented that away fans have been banned for attending the game as the section separating them from the home fans has not been completed yet.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing the club that we are, many of our members who usually travel are family and friends. It\u2019s a shame that we won\u2019t be able to count on their support this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Lekue said it was important to keep perspective over the club\u2019s mixed run of results.<\/p>\n \u201cBad runs are what people outside the club focus on, but we don\u2019t dwell on them. We focus on each game as a unique match, regardless of statistics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The two clubs have faced each other a whopping 244 times, with Barcelona winning 124 of those games, Athletic winning 80, while 40 ended as draws.<\/p>\n Barca have won nine of their last 11 La Liga games against Athletic, most recently a 3-0 victory in Bilbao in May courtesy of a Lewandowski brace and a Dani Olmo penalty.<\/p>\n Each of Athletic\u2019s last four victories over Barcelona has been in cup ties \u2013 most recently a 4-2 home win in the Copa del Rey in January 2024.<\/p>\n Athletic\u2019s last La Liga victory over Barcelona was in August 2019, when a stunning overhead kick by Aritz Aduriz won the game for the Basque club 1-0.<\/p>\n Yamal is back in training after undergoing a groin procedure, which led him to miss Spain\u2019s qualifiers this week, and is set to feature against Bilbao.<\/p>\n First-choice keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and key midfielder Pedri remain unavailable due to injury.<\/p>\n However, Barca\u2019s exciting winger Raphinha has recovered from a hamstring issue, and goalkeeper Joan Garcia is expected to start after overcoming a knee problem.<\/p>\n Frenkie de Jong is suspended, so Marc Casado is set to replace him in midfield \u2013 if he can overcome a groin issue of his own.<\/p>\n Joan Garcia; Eric Garcia, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Casado, Olmo, Lopez; Yamal, Lewandowski, Rashford<\/p>\n Inaki Williams, Unai Eguiluz and Maroan Sannadi remain sidelined with injuries, while Benat Prados is a long-term absentee due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament. And Yeray Alvarez is serving a 10-month ban for a failed drug test.<\/p>\n Attacking midfielder Oihan Sancet has returned to training following an injury and could feature, while star winger\u00a0Nico Williams scored on his return from injury against Real Ovideo and is set to start against Barca.<\/p>\n Simon; Berchiche, Laporte, Vivian, Gorosabel; Jauregizar, Ruiz de Galarreta; Nico Williams, Sanchez, Berenguer; Guruzeta<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Who: Barcelona vs Athletic BilbaoWhat:\u00a0Spain\u2019s La LigaWhere: Camp Nou, BarcelonaWhen:\u00a0Saturday at 4:15pm (15:15 GMT)How to follow:\u00a0We\u2019ll have all the build-up on\u00a0Al Jazeera Sport from 12:15 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream. Barcelona will return to competitive action at their famous Camp Nou stadium on Saturday for the first time in two-and-a-half years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
What:\u00a0<\/strong>Spain\u2019s La Liga
Where:<\/strong> Camp Nou, Barcelona
When:\u00a0<\/strong>Saturday at 4:15pm (15:15 GMT)
How to follow:\u00a0<\/strong>We\u2019ll have all the build-up on\u00a0Al Jazeera Sport from 12:15 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Return to Camp Nou<\/h2>\n
![\"BARCELONA,](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/getty_691ee726c0-1763632934.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Camp Nou \u2018will definitely help us\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"epa12515162](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/epa_69200c0e009e-1763707918.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Barca\u2019s high-line causing sleepless nights<\/h2>\n
Bilbao \u2018not dwelling\u2019 on bad results<\/h2>\n
Head-to-head<\/h2>\n
Barcelona\u2019s team news<\/h2>\n
Barcelona\u2019s predicted starting XI<\/h2>\n
Athletic Bilbao\u2019s team news<\/h2>\n
Athletic Bilbao\u2019s predicted starting XI<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"