Having opened their La Liga campaign with a win over Valencia, Barcelona will have been acutely aware that, after Real Madrid dropped points on the opening weekend, they had the chance to put further daylight between themselves and their eternal rivals with a victory over Athletic Club on Saturday. Hansi Flick's team did were made to work for it, but they did just that, recording a 2-1 win over last season's Copa del Rey champions.
Lamine Yamal, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the man to open the scoring for Barcelona, as he took aim from the edge of the box and fired in via a deflection off Yeray Alvarez. Robert Lewandowski subsequenly hit the crossbar before, on 40 minutes, Athletic screamed for a penalty after Pau Cubarsi appeared to bring down Alejandro Berenguer. Barcelona actually broke and appealed for a spot-kick of their own, but VAR intervened and the visitors got the initial decision, with. Oihand Sancet converting from 12 yards.
After the break, Lewandowski rattled the woodwork for the second time when he somehow managed to direct a close-ranger header against the post. However, in the 74th minute, he finally got his goal as Alex Padilla parried Pedri's cross into the box and it fell at the feet of the Lewandowski, who lashed the ball home.
From there, Barca were able to see the victory out with a minimum of fuss, and now have two wins from their opening two games under Flick.
GOAL rates Barcelona's players from the Olympic Stadium...