Next Saturday, 13th of September of 2014, two of the most charismatic teams of Spanish football, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, will go head-to-head at Camp Nou on the third round of the Liga BBVA.

A late goal from the canterano Sandro Ramírez was enough to defeat a well organized Villarreal side at El Madrigal last week, but Barcelona was forced to put in some extra elbow grease in order to overcome Marcelino Toral’s boys.

This new Barcelona from Luis Enrique is, in fact, fairly different from the one Tata Martino assembled last season. Barça definitely increased the intensity of their game when compared to last season and there is also a sense of unity among the players, who also seem to be working twice as hard as they did last term.

Luis Enrique keeps pushing with a 4-3-3 system, similar to the one he used at Celta de Vigo last season, and Barça players seem to be responding quite well to their manager’s demands. The Asturian head coach, who is known for his high levels of demand, has been giving some playing time to players from the team’s cantera and they are proving that La Masia is still one of the best football academies in the World.

For the complicated match against Athletic, the Catalan manager will not be able to count on the erratic Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez, who is still suspended, and he is not yet certain if Messi, Vermaelen and Iniesta will recover in time for the clash.

As for Athletic, the team will travel to Camp Nou after two consecutive and motivating wins against Napoli and Levante. The Basque team smashed Les Granotes 3-0 last weekend on a match they controlled from the very first minute.

After a controversial defeat on round 1 at the hands of Málaga, Ernesto Valverde’s boys returned to “normality” playing in front of their enthusiastic supporters at San Mamés and once again proved to be one of the most impressive teams of Spanish football.

For the match against Barcelona, Valverde is not yet certain if Ibai Gomez and Iraola will be 100% fit, since they are still recovering from recent injuries.

When both teams met at Camp Nou last season, Barça won a very even match by 2-1, thanks to goals from Pedro and Messi. The home side are favourites for next Saturday’s match but they will definitely need to dig very deep in order to overcome a fairly competent team such as Athletic.

Barcelona

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWL

Athletic Bilbao

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWWLD

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Dani Alves - Piqué - Mathieu - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Rafinha - Rakitic - Neymar - Pedro - Messi

Athletic Bilbao (4-2-3-1) - Iraizoz - D. Marcos - S. José - Laporte - Balenziaga - Iturraspe - M. Rico - Muniain - Beñat - Viguera - Aduriz

Prediction

Barcelona 2 Athletic 1