Barcelona face Athletic Bilbao this Saturday evening, and will be hoping to continue the strong start they’ve made to the post-Lionel Messi era. The Blaugrana opened their La Liga campaign with a 4-2 defeat of Real Sociedad last weekend, with Gerard Pique, Martin Braithwaite (twice) and Sergi Roberto scoring.
They’ve been training hard during the week, with a fun clip emerging on social media of Frenkie de Jong nutmegging Ronald Araujo during a session. De Jong was superb in the opener against La Real, while Araujo could be in line to start against Athletic after news broke that Gerard Pique is set to be rested.
The pair could very well be the future of Barcelona, and it should be noted that Araujo recovered later in the session to take his Dutch colleague out with a clean sliding challenge. Barcelona don’t have the financial strength to compete with the likes of Paris Saint-Germain or Manchester City; what they do have is a talented young squad that could be dangerous if cohesive.