BARCELONA players were given a torrid time by Athletic Bilbao but escaped from their trip to San Mames with a point as Memphis Depay’s superb late strike secured a 1-1 draw for the Catalans on Saturday. Depay found the net with a fine left-foot half-volley 15 minutes from time in the Basque Country for his first goal in La Liga since moving to Barcelona from Lyon. Ronald Koeman’s side had impressed in their first match of the post-Lionel Messi era as they beat Real Sociedad 4-2 last weekend, but they were fortunate to depart with a point from this game. It was a difficult night for their defense in particular, with Gerard Pique coming off after half an hour and Eric Garcia being sent off in stoppage time for bringing down Inaki Williams. Former Manchester City defender Garcia reportedly received news of his grandfather’s death just before the match and struggled throughout the 90 minutes, allowing Inigo Martinez to get away from him to head in the opener early in the second half. Athletic players will feel they should have won despite missing several key players, among them goalkeeper Unai Simon, who has not featured at the start of this season after helping Spain reach the Euro 2020 semifinals and then the final of the Tokyo Olympics. Barcelona players were unchanged from their opening victory meaning another start for Pedri, the brilliant young midfielder who also played at Euro 2020 and the Olympics and is now set to get a two-week holiday. Martin Braithwaite, who netted twice against Real Sociedad, missed an early sitter for the visitors when he blazed over after great play by Depay. Athletic then saw Oihan Sancet turn and crash a shot off the crossbar from 12 meters out.(SD-Agencies) |