Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona preview - Bartra ready for Bilbao battle

Posted Saturday, August 22, 2015 by PA

Barcelona know they cannot rest on the laurels of this past season's treble-winning campaign when they launch their Primera Division title defence at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

Athletic humbled Barca with a 5-1 aggregate victory in the Spanish Super Cup final this month to dash the Catalans' hopes of capturing a fifth title in 2015.

Spanish defender Marc Bartra started in last week's 4-0 defeat at Athletic in the first leg and is eager to make amends.

"We are the defending champions and we have to defend the title like never before," Bartra said on his club's official website. "Learning from mistakes is what makes you grow and we are determined to avenge last week's result against Athletic.

"Athletic are a tough team and the best we can do is come back, play good football, and get the three points.

"We are lucky enough to be competing again very quickly and there are lots of ways we can learn from our mistakes.

"We need to press the reset button and go out for a win."

Repeating last season's success will be difficult considering Barca will have to cope without their summer signings, Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan, who cannot play until January when the club's FIFA transfer ban expires.

Barca won the Primera Division, Copa del Rey and Champions League titles under first-year coach Luis Enrique.

They added a fourth trophy this month when they beat Sevilla 5-4 in extra-time to win the UEFA Super Cup, with Spanish forward Pedro, who joined Chelsea this week, scoring the winner.

Despite Pedro's departure, Barca will have no shortage of goals, with their formidable attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar scoring a combined 122 in all competitions for the club last season.

However, Neymar will sit out Sunday's match after the player was diagnosed with mumps.

With Gerard Pique serving his first of a four-match ban on Sunday - after being sent off in Monday's 1-1 draw against Athletic for dissent - and Jeremy Mathieu also suspended, Bartra is expected to play alongside Javier Mascherano in Barca's defence.

Both players will have their work cut out to limit Athletic forward Aritz Aduriz.

Aduriz scored four of Athletic's five goals in the Spanish Super Cup.

"Aduriz is a striker who's scored a lot of goals and he really knows how to move," Bartra said. "He's pretty clever and we have to be at a high level.

"We have to avoid making individual mistakes."

Aduriz was rested for Thursday's 3-2 defeat at Zilina in their first leg of their Europa League play-off tie.

The Basque outfit host the Slovakian outfit next Thursday with a place in the Europa League group stages up for grabs.

"We are disappointed with the result as it's unfair considering what we did on the pitch," Athletic coach Ernesto Valverde said. "Now we must turn around the tie next week if we are to compete in Europe."

Athletic, who finished seventh in La Liga last season, are without injured striker Inaki Williams.