Barcelona looks to keep their hope alive for the La Liga title when they visit Athletic Club’s San Mames Stadium in Bilbao on Sunday night. However, the destiny has something else; saturday match between Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona ended with a scoreless draw.
Why Athletic Bilbao vs Barcelona was a scoreless draw?
It became a disappointing evening for Barcelona. They failed to expand their winning run against the Athletic Club. Why? Because of the injury of two major players of the Barcelona team.
Frenkie De Jong and Pedri midfielders of Barcelona were substituted because of foot injuries in the first half. De Jong was taken off the field on a stretcher after 26th minutes of twisting his right foot and ankles. Before halftime, Pedri also left the pitch in tears after suffering an injury in hisThe club has still not given more details about the injuries. The head coach of Barcelona, Xavi Hernandez, told the media that “it was a sad day because of the injury of two important players of Barcelona. The team will be affected by that as they are absent in many upcoming matches.”
De Jong’s ankle injury looks more severe than Pedri’s muscular issue. Both players will undergo tests with the club’s medical team when returning to Barcelona.
Who replaced the injured players?
FermÃn López came in place of De Jong, while Lamine Yamal replaced Pedri in the match after injury. Barcelona was left frustrated as it lost a chance to close the gap with La Liga leaders Real Madrid after being held to a flat 0-0 draw at Athletic Club on Sunday, March 3.
Barca were trying to secure the win that will help them close the gap and enable them to leapfrog Girona into second place in the standings. They have a few more days to recover before they host Real Mallorca on Friday. Mallorca heads into the game new from beating Girona on Sunday at 1-0.