Barcelona start La Liga 2019/20 with an away loss in Bilbao

Barcelona start 2019/20 La Liga season with a loss away to The Athletic Club. It must be extremely disappointing given Barcelona’s stature as a club also that they are defending their title.

Barcelona will now have their focus shift on the game next weekend when they play Real Betis. That’s a home game which they should be looking to win at any cost now that they have lost the first one.

Barca started this game with their minds on the task of winning it so played to score goals but were unsuccessful as Athletic Bilbao were outstanding as well.

Lionel Messi not playing would have been a bit disappointing as well for Barca. But anyways they had to cope with the pressure, so they did manage to play not that bad and we were 0-0 at half-time in San Mames.

Both the managers would have had different reactions to the first half as Ernesto Valverde must not have been pleased with his side’s display in the first half while Gaizka Garitano must have been overjoyed with the splendid display.

As a result the second half is on which everybody would have had their eyes set on to see what eventually happens in the match.

We saw both teams again looking for that elusive goal but nobody succeeding only until the 89th minute when Aritz Aduriz scored to put Athletic Bilbao in front and Barcelona in all sorts of trouble.

As one would expect with so little time to go, Barcelona would have found it difficult to find the equaliser. And they were deprived of the goal in full 90 minutes period as Athletic Bilbao won the match.

It is a fantastic start to the new campaign for Athletic Bilbao but a very poor start to Barca’s campaign.