Athletic Club vs Barcelona: TV channel, live stream, squad news & preview

After a midweek Clasico, Barcelona are back in Primera Division action on Sunday when they travel to face Athletic Club.

A 1-1 draw against Real Madrid in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final leaves them in which a chance of progress to the final, while in La Liga they can go eight points clear if they win at San Mames after Real Madrid beat Atletico 3-1 on Saturday .

Athletic rarely make life early life easy for their guests at home, having beaten Real Betis and Sevilla in league action in recent weeks. 

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TV Channel, Live Stream & How To Watch

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In the United States (US), the game can be watched live and on-demand with fuboTV (7-day free trial).

New users can sign up for a free seven-day trial of the live sports streaming service, which can be accessed via iOS, Android, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Apple TV as well as on a web browser.

In the United Kingdom (UK), the game will be streamed via Eleven Sports 1.

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Squads & Team News

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Athletic make a host of changes with Aritz Aduriz and Lekue out injured and Ander Capa suspended. Raul Garcia, Oscar de Marcos, Mikel Balenziaga, Markel Susaeta and Benat all come into the side. January signing Kenan Kodro is named on the bench.

Athletic starting XI: Herrerín, De Marcos, Yeray, Inigo Martínez, Balenziaga, Benat, Dani García, Susaeta, Raul Garcia, Yuri, Inaki Williams.

Lionel Messi is restored to the starting line-up after he was only a substitute for the draw against Real Madrid in midweek with Malcom the one to make way.

Sergi Roberto and Arturo Vidal also return with Arthur sidelined with a hamstring injury and Jordi Alba suspended.

Barcelona starting XI: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Lenglet, Pique, Semedo; Rakitic, Busquets, Vidal, Coutinho, Suarez, Messi.

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Betting & Match Odds

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Barcelona are strong favourites to win, with odds of 4/6 at bet365 . A draw is 3/1, while the price on a home win is 4/1.

Click here to see more offers for the game, including goalscoring markets, correct score predictions and more .

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Match Preview

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Getty

In a strange way, Barcelona will have been pleased to see Real Madrid overcome Atletico Madrid on Saturday. While the 3-1 win was testimony of the increasing strength of Los Blancos, it has also served to strength Barca’s grasp on first place, dealing an immense blow to Atleti’s title hopes in the meantime.

Ernesto Valverde’s side will now seek to take advantage on Sunday but were made aware of the pitfalls of tackling Athletic earlier in the season, when they were held to a 1-1 draw against the Basque outfit at Camp Nou, the now departed Munir El Haddadi forced to grab a late equaliser to salvage the point.

“Every game at San Mames is complicated and tomorrow's will be especially difficult,” said the former Athletic coach, who has one win and four losses in the league at the home of a team he led for six seasons.

“It's always tough when Barca play in Bilbao. There is great pressure from the stands. Athletic try to push you back into your half and keep you there and that will make it difficult for us to play our game. It's going to be an attractive game to watch as it always is - it's one of the toughest games we have left in the calendar.”

Inaki Williams is certainly confident that the home side have the capacity to trouble the league leaders.

“Barca are a very complicated opponent, very difficult. We are aware that they have the best player in the world and other very good ones, but we have more than enough weapons and we have always put them in trouble,” January’s La Liga Player of the Month told Mundo Deportivo.

“We have to be very close to them based on the fact that it will be very difficult to steal the ball from them. We must take advantage of our chances and have confidence.”