Athletic Club vs Barcelona

Late Wednesday, Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona will confront each other in the Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia.

Athletic are participating in the semi-finals in their capacity of the holders of the Copa del Rey trophy, whereas the Blaugrana are participating in the Super Cup because of the second place attained in the previous season.

Athletic are participating in the four-team system for the third time, thanks to the success experienced in the previous Copa del Rey tournament.

Los Leones won a penalty shootout in the final in April to be crowned as Copa del Rey champions for the first time in four decades

Athletic will be able to compete in Saudi Arabia to defend this Spanish Super Cup and have their fourth Achievement in the Spanish Super Cup in the four-team format after winning it last year in 2021.

The team of Ernesto Valverde is going into Wednesday’s semi-final match in a good form, having failed to lose any of the previous fifteen competitive outings, of which six of the last ten league fixtures that took place have ended in victories or draws, and at the moment, Atletico occupies the fourth position in theSpanish La Liga table, thereby being two points behind the third placed Barcelona.

Although they are in good shape, Athletic was tested to the limits in their first match of Copa del Rey championship against the fourth division side Logrones which they lost on penalties after a 0-0 draw in normal and extra time.

Athletic will now shift their attention to Wednesday’s semi-final and despite the additional time victory over Barcelona in the Copa del Rey last season, the Basque outfit has not registered a victory over the Blaugrana in 90 minutes since a 1-0 triumph in February 2020.

Like Athletic, Barcelona ensured that the knockout stage encounter against a team from a lower division was manageable, although Barcelona faced less difficulty in their match against Barbastro when compared to the Logrones game of Athletic.

Together with goals from Pablo Torre and Eric Garcia, Robert Lewandowski scored twice to lead Barcelona to a decisive 4-0 victory over the fourth-tier team.

In contrast to a team that started the season with 11 wins in 12 La Liga games (L1), the Blaugrana would have been relieved to avoid any mistakes in the Copa del Rey match, especially after entering the winter break on the heels of a dismal run of form in La Liga, winning just one of their final seven league games of 2024 (D2, L4).

Hansi Flick's team is now in third place in the league rankings as a result of their poor play; they are five points behind leaders Real Madrid and three points behind second-place Atletico Madrid, who have a game in hand.

Barcelona will go to Saudi Arabia in the hopes of winning their 15th Spanish Super Cup and their second in the four-team format before attempting to resume their league season against Getafe on January 18.

The fact that the Catalan giants have won the Spanish Super Cup semi-finals the past two seasons—beating Real Betis on penalties in 2023 and defeating Osasuna 2-0 in the previous season's final four—might serve as motivation for them.

Despite the two players' continuous registration problems, Barcelona has added Dani Olmo and Pau Victor to its traveling squad.

The Blaugrana's ability to find a way to make Olmo and Victor accessible for Wednesday's semi-final is therefore now uncertain.

After using Saturday's Copa del Rey match as a chance to give some of his squad's benchwarmers playing time, Valverde is expected to make a number of changes to his team.

Nico Williams and Inaki Williams are anticipated to return to Athletic's flanks, while Benat Prados and Mikel Jauregizar are in the running to start in midfield.