Online: FC Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao Live 2011

It will be all about regaining their footing for Athletic Bilbao who will aim to earn a bit of redemption from their earlier visit to London for the Champions League. Meanwhile, Barcelona will look to make a statement in order to make sure that the five point advantage over Real Madrid doesn’t fail them.

Coming into this week, a major storyline was David Villa’s muscular pain. As it stands, all signs point to him being able to play alongside Lionel Messi and Pedro against Athletic’s extremely talented, albeit a bit overmatched defenders.

In Athletic’s previous run at the Camp Nou they fashioned a defensive game plan that proved to be difficult to penetrate for their opponents. In this game, the club will hope for a similarly effective result against their very skilled opponents.

Barcelona comes into this game having gotten 49 of the last 52 points possible. This no doubt raises major concerns for Athletic and Fernando Llorente who need a big win in this outing to keep from losing their way along the European chase.

Over the course of their last 15 home games, Barcelona has totaled up 40 points. With an average of 2.67 points per game, this team seems to tower over the 12 points and .80 average that Athletic put up in their last 15 away games.

To their credit, Athletic has won three games away from home and had a draw in three matches. Unfortunately, nine more nine of those other matches that were away games ended with them putting up disappointing losses.

Interestingly enough, since 2005 Barcelona has risen to the occasion in the month of February. Boasting a 22-9-8 record for the month, this team no doubt gave Athletic a ton to plan for in anticipation of this game.

Also, it’s worth noting, Athletic have not won at Camp Nou dating back to 2001. In fact, the last time this squad even got points at the locale was in 2004. If this team has any shot at winning this game, they must find a way to score against Barcelona.

Both Athletic and Barcelona come into this game coming off losses that ended a winning streak.

FC Barcelona vs. Athletic Bilbao Odds: As expected, Barcelona is overwhelming favorite in this match. Currently, football sportsbooks list Barça as a 1 to 7 favorite, or wager seven units to win one. On the other sideline, Los Leones are a 16 to 1 underdog, or wager one unit to win 16. Should this match end in a draw, bettors would collect on 13 to 2 odds, or wager two units to win 13 as listed by Bet365 sportsbook.

FC Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao Live 2011

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