Lamine Yamal makes the difference as Barcelona win in Bilbao

Athletic Club 0-1 Barcelona

Barcelona have responded to Real Madrid’s victory at Celta Vigo on Friday with a gritty win of their own at San Mames, with Athletic Club having been narrowly defeated on their turf by the La Liga leaders.

With one eye on Tuesday’s match against Newcastle United in the Champions League, Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick made the decision to drop Pedri, Fermin Lopez and Raphinha to the bench. Understandably, this led to a drop-off in performance, with the Catalans unable to make a decisive impact in the first half.

Ferran Torres came closest to scoring for the visitors after his flicked effort went wide of the far post, while at the other end, Joao Cancelo almost scored an own goal after his attempted clearance struck the crossbar of Joan Garcia, who made a crucial intervention to deny Selton Sanchez in a 1-on-1 situation.

The introduction at Pedri gave Barcelona a boost for the second half, and it turned out to be a decisive one. The midfielder did well to move away from a challenge in the centre of the park before slipping in Lamine Yamal, who cut inside before firing the ball into the back of the Athletic net via the far post.

The hosts had done very well to nullify Lamine Yamal up until that moment, but once again, the 18-year-old showed his class with an excellent finish. After that, Athletic upped things in their search for an equaliser, but they were repelled by the excellent Garcia in the Barcelona goal, as he made three saves across the 90 minutes to ensure another clean sheet.

Barcelona answer the question in La Liga title race

The pressure was on Barcelona to respond after Real Madrid’s last-gasp victory at Celta 24 hours prior, and they have managed to do so – just. It means they are back to being four points clear in the La Liga title race.