La Liga: Barcelona May Be Without Messi for Trip to San Mames

La Liga: Barcelona May Be Without Messi for Trip to San Mames

Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona

The new La Liga campaign is finally set to kick off. And this year’s curtain-raiser will see champions Barcelona travel to Basque Country to take on Athletic Bilbao. However, they will likely do so without superstar Lionel Messi, who is still dealing with a calf injury.

But even without Messi, the La Liga 2019 betting odds still have the Catalans as overwhelming favourites against Bilbao, who have not have a particularly eventful summer transfer window.

In contrast, Barcelona have once again strengthened this offseason with the big-money signings of Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann, who will be eager to start lighting up La Liga for Barca in the region where he spent the early part of his career.

Talking Points

Same old Bilbao

After flirting with relegation during the 2017-18 season, Athletic Bilbao bounced back quite nicely last season as they finished a respectable eighth. That was despite the dismissal of manager Eduardo Berizzo in December. Athletic Bilbao B manager Gaizka Garitano came in to replace him and steadied the ship.

Garitano will need to recreate that success with virtually the same squa

d this season as Bilbao have not done anything of note during the transfer window. They’ve made no new signings and have only brought in a handful of youngsters from Athletic Bilbao B to help replace the five players who left the club on free transfers.

Perhaps their most notable move of the offseason was signing star forward Inaki Williams to a new nine-year contract. Williams played all 38 games for Bilbao for the third successive season and scored a career-best 12 goals as 38-year-old striker Aritz Aduriz finally began to slow down.

The 25-year-old Williams, who had recently been linked to Manchester United, will once again have a major part to play in Bilbao’s season. He, Raul Garcia, and Iker Muniain will need to prop up a Bilbao attack which scored just 41 goals last season, fifth-fewest in the league.

Meanwhile, their defence will need to be at its very best to contain Barca’s world-class frontline. The Bilbao backline surrendered just 19 goals in 19 La Liga home matches last season.

Messi’s status remains unclear

It remains unclear whether Messi will be able to recover from his calf injury in time to take part against Bilbao. The latest La Liga 2019 updates on the injury aren’t too promising, though, with Barca manager Ernesto Valverde saying it is “looking difficult” for Messi to be ready.

The Argentine missed out on Barca’s pre-season double-header against Napoli during their tour of the US. But Barca didn’t seem to miss their talisman at all during those two matches, which they won 2-1 and 4-0.

The attacking trio of Luis Suarez, Antoine Griezmann, and Ousmane Dembele all got on the scoresheet in the second match as they absolutely blitzed Napoli with four goals over a 15-minute stretch in the second half.

While Barca continue to talk with PSG about a potential Neymar reunion, their front three would still be arguably the best in the entire league even without Messi. That’s how ridiculously talented they are up front.

Meanwhile, the midfield is looking a lot more solid with the addition of new signing Frenkie de Jong. The young Dutchman has integrated into the side seamlessly and will be eager to impress in his La Liga debut.

History

As the only other club aside from Real Madrid and Barcelona that’s never been relegated from La Liga, Bilbao have had their fair share of battles against Barca.

But unfortunately of them, Barca have had the upper hand in their head-to-heads, particularly in recent years. Prior to last season, they had won nine consecutive La Liga meetings and are unbeaten in 24 of the last 25 (20 wins, four draws).

But Bilbao finally put an end to that unwanted losing streak as they held Barcelona to draws in both of their matchups last season.

Betting Tip

Barcelona Asian Handicap -1.00 @ 2.20

As Barcelona showed quite emphatically in their 6-1 aggregate win over two games against Napoli, their attack won’t be particularly weakened by Messi’s absence. With the attacking trio of Suarez, Griezmann, and Dembele, there are still loads of goals in this squad.

That’s why I feel confident in taking the Asian Handicap in this match. SBOBET odds have Barcelona -1.00 priced at 2.20, which is strong value. I fully expect Barca to come out strong in the first match of the season and claim a comfortable win by at least two goals at San Mames.

Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.

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