Barcelona vs. Athletic Bilbao: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info and Preview
Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao will kick off Saturday's slate of fixtures in Week 3 of the 2014-15 La Liga season, a day that will bring fans clashes between the top four teams of last year.
Real Madrid will host Atletico Madrid later in the day, but all eyes will turn to the Camp Nou to watch two of the hottest teams in all of football do battle first. The Catalans' start to the season has been perfect, while Bilbao have won three straight since dropping their La Liga opener.
Fans don't usually get to watch top teams go head to head this early in the season, and Saturday's double header should give us one of the best days of football of the year 2014.
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Date: Saturday, September 13
Time: 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona
TV info and live stream: The match will be broadcast by BeIN Sports (for US viewers), with mobile coverage available via the BeIN Sports Connect app.
Preview
Saturday's fixture should be a memorable one for a variety of reasons. To commemorate the September 11 anniversary of the Siege of Barcelona, the hosts will wear a special kit based on the colours of the Catalan flag, according to a statement made via the club's official website:
"FC Barcelona's first team have been given permission by the LFP to wear their "senyera" kit against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday afternoon at the Camp Nou.
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The Club's Board of Directors had requested the change in strip, which features a design based on the Catalan flag, as part of the commemorations to mark the three hundredth anniversary of the September 11 siege of Barcelona in 1714.
The kit will likely resemble the team's away kit from the 2013-14 season, which the Blaugrana never wore at the iconic Camp Nou for a home match.
The occasion could be given some added shine by Lionel Messi, who is just two goals shy of a career mark of 400, according to the Daily Mail's Richard Arrowsmith. It's not hard to see why the club wants every fan in the world to watch such a potentially historic moment:
Saturday's fixture might be billed as something of a celebration for the hosts, but they'll have their work cut out for them when they take on Athletic. The Basques dropped their league opener to Malaga but have been red hot since, winning their last three in dominant fashion.
Barcelona haven't conceded a single goal in their last five fixtures—Bilbao have scored nine in their last three. Something has to give.
Iker Muniain has been the Basques' top player so far this season, and he was forced to watch Barca youngster Munir El Haddadi make his Spain debut while he captained the U21s. He took it sportingly, telling AS he plans to use it as motivation:
He'll have to be at his very best to take on a Barcelona defence that has looked very sturdy early in the season. Per ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan, it's still unsure whether Thomas Vermaelen and Jeremy Mathieu will be fit in time for the match:
Mikel San Jose made his Spain debut against France but didn't feature for La Roja against Macedonia, so he should be rested to resume his role in the centre of the defence.
Messi and Neymar are both expected to feature for the Blaugrana, so Athletic will need their towering centre-back to take his international form and lead the visitors' back line as they attempt to blemish Barcelona's perfect start to the season.
