It was a night that suited Barcelona supporters down to the ground: FC Barcelona clocked up a convincing 4-0 home win against Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Sunday night. That keeps the team coached by Xavi Hernández in touch with league leaders Real Madrid who are three points ahead of the Blaugrana after winning El Clásico a week ago (3-1). The outstanding Ousame Dembelé, Sergi Roberto, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres netted the Barça goals in front of 84,817 spectators at the Camp Nou. However, there were two pieces of bad news for Xavi & Co.: Gavi and Sergi Roberto were both injured in the game.
Barcelona line-up against Athletic Bilbao: ter Stegen - Sergi Roberto, Koundé (Marcos Alonso 63’), Garcia, Balde - de Jong, Busquets, Pedri (Ferran Torres 63’) - Dembelé (Pablo Torre 77’), Lewandowski (Ansu Fati 63’), Gavi (Kessié 34’).
All-or-nothing game for Barcelona
The five-time winners have failed to live up to their own expectations in the Champions League campaign so far. The runners-up in La Liga have only won once in the first four group matches and they also tasted defeat against direct rivals Inter Milan. A 1-0 loss in the first match was followed by a 3-3 draw in a frenetic return encounter.
That means the team including the former FCB player Lewandowski has their backs to the wall with two games to play. If Inter Milan beat Plzeň on Wednesday evening (kick-off 18:45 CEST) then Barcelona will have no chance of reaching the Round of 16 in the competition before the kick-off in the game against FC Bayern.
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