Goals: Athletic Bilbao—Jose 13’ - Aduriz 53’, 62’, 68’
Recap: Ninety minutes of inspired football saw Athletic Bilbao upset Barcelona 4-0 on Friday.
Despite conceding a lion’s share of the possession in the first half (76 percent), it was Athletic who opened the affair 13 minutes in. A poor decision from goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen—coming off his line to clear the ball—resulted in an early candidate for goal of the week. From 45 yards out, Mikel San Jose gifted the hosts a 1-0 lead.
More of the same followed in the second half. A 15-minute hat-trick from Aritz Aduriz sealed the improbable 4-0 victory.
Key Moment: Moments before Bilbao doubled their advantage, Barcelona nearly found an equalizer. Unfortunately for the Catalan giants, Pedro’s strike rattled off the crossbar. The match escaped them from there.
Man of the Match: Aduriz became the first player to score a hat-trick against Barcelona since Diego Forlan in 2005.
Lesson Learned: In fairness to Barcelona, Friday’s contest was nothing more than a glorified friendly. Luis Enrique’s starting lineup reflected as much, seeing Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets relegated to the bench.
But where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Including the final 35 minutes of Tuesday’s 5-4 victory over Sevilla, Barcelona have now conceded eight goals in their last 125 minutes of play. The club conceded just 21 all of last season. As invincible as Barcelona looked en route to winning the treble, the club is far from unbeatable in 2015.
Up Next: Both clubs travel to Barcelona for the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup on Aug 17.
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