FC Barcelona (2nd, 28pts) vs Athletic Club Bilbao (7th, 17pts)<\/p>\n
Competition\/Round: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 13<\/p>\n
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen, Gavi, Pedri, Frenkie de Jong (out), Marcus Rashford (doubt)<\/p>\n
Athletic Outs & Doubts: I\u00f1aki Williams, Maroan Sannadi, Be\u00f1at Prados, Unai Eguiluz (out)<\/p>\n
Date\/Time: Saturday, November 22, 2025, 4.15pm CET\/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 3.15pm GMT (UK), 10.15am ET, 7.15am PT (USA), 8.45pm IST (India)<\/p>\n
Venue: Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain<\/p>\n
Referee: Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda S\u00e1nchez Mart\u00ednez<\/p>\n
VAR: Daniel Jes\u00fas Trujillo Su\u00e1rez<\/p>\n
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), SuperSport (Nigeria), others<\/a><\/p>\n How to watch online: ESPN+<\/a> (USA), LaLigaTV (UK), FanCode (India), DAZN (Spain), others<\/a><\/p>\n The final international break of 2025 lasted exactly four hundred and thirty nine weeks, but it is finally over and with it comes one of the most anticipated days in the history of FC Barcelona as the club returns to the Greatest Stadium on Earth to face Athletic Bilbao in La Liga action on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n Bar\u00e7a will play a match at the Spotify Camp Nou for the first time in 909 days, after two and a half years of work and many, many, many, many, many, many delays. It\u2019s been a very frustrating waiting game and the renovations are nowhere near complete, but 45,000 fans will be in attendance on Saturday to witness Bar\u00e7a\u2019s return to their iconic home which will be one of the most spectacular sports venues in the world once the work is done in a few years.<\/p>\n For now, though, the return to Camp Nou, even an incomplete one, has many, many advantages: Bar\u00e7a\u2019s finances will get a big boost as the expensive Montju\u00efc Olympic Stadium no longer needs to be rented and maintained at the club\u2019s cost, but the real boost is to the atmosphere: Montju\u00efc never felt like a real home or even a temporary one, and Bar\u00e7a played mostly away matches for two and a half years straight with very few exceptions, like El Clasico and a few high-profile Champions League games.<\/p>\n The 45,000 fans at Camp Nou will be a lot closer to the pitch than the 55,000 at Montju\u00efc, and that alone makes a huge difference. Camp Nou also has much easier access, and is Camp Freaking Nou. This is Bar\u00e7a\u2019s home, plain and simple, and listening to that legendary anthem again as the players take the field will be an unforgettable experience for those lucky to be there and those watching from afar.<\/p>\n There will be a ton of pre-match festivities and a very special ceremonial kickoff planned, but there is also a very important game to be played. Bar\u00e7a got a big win away to Celta Vigo and looked amazing in the second half two weeks ago, and also cut Real Madrid\u2019s lead to three points in the process. Bar\u00e7a can temporarily return to top spot in the table on goal difference if they win this one, and can once again put some pressure on their biggest rivals in the early stages of the title race.<\/p>\n Ernesto Valverde\u2019s Athletic have had a very inconsistent season mostly due to injuries but are starting to get healthier, and would love nothing more than to spoil Bar\u00e7a\u2019s homecoming party. They have the talent, they have the resilience, and they have Nico Williams, who will definitely be hungry to put on a show after infamously rejecting Bar\u00e7a in the summer.<\/p>\n Rarely does a November La Liga game feel this big, but Bar\u00e7a are returning to Camp Nou. It really is happening this time. And we\u2019re all ready to enjoy it. Let\u2019s hope the players are too.<\/p>\n Barcelona (4-3-3): Garcia; Kounde, Cubars\u00ed, Eric, Balde; Ferm\u00edn, Casad\u00f3, Olmo; Yamal, Lewandowski, Ferran<\/p>\n Athletic (4-2-3-1): Sim\u00f3n; Gorosabel, Vivian, Laporte, Berchiche; De Galarreta, Jauregizar; Berenguer, Sancet, N. Williams; Guruzeta<\/p>\n This will be such an emotional occasion for the club that the team might actually struggle a bit to handle all of the wonderful feelings all around them, but I still think there\u2019s just no way Bar\u00e7a won\u2019t win on their return to Camp Nou: 3-1 to the home team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FC Barcelona (2nd, 28pts) vs Athletic Club Bilbao (7th, 17pts) Competition\/Round: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 13 Barcelona Outs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[134561,1208,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-299437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-barcelona-match-previews","tag-barcelona-la-liga","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}