Within 20 seconds, Barcelona’s Joao Cancelo hit his own crossbar, before Lamine Yamal’s trickery and Ferran Torres’ touch nearly forced Andoni Gorosabel into an own goal at the opposite end.
And, by the 10-minute mark, Athletic’s Unai Gomez had sustained a nasty knee injury and had to be replaced by Robert Navarro, knocking the hosts out of their stride for a time as Barca took control.
However, the game’s pace had slowed significantly by the midway point of the half, although with Athletic chasing shadows for the most part.
Marc Bernal began to dictate the game from midfield for the visitors, though any half-chances for Barca’s front men were quickly snuffed out by Dani Vivian and Aymeric Laporte.
At the other end, Selton Sanchez should have given the hosts the lead when clean through, but Joan Garcia took the ball off his toes as he was about to pull the trigger.
Shortly after, Inaki Williams looked to have opened the scoring only to be flagged offside, and Navarro flashed a cross-shot wide.
After the restart, Barca again took the initiative, with Unai Simon beating away Marcus Rashford’s on-target effort before the Englishman set up Pau Cubarsi, whose header went just wide.
Not long after, the latter was lucky to stay on the field after upending Williams when the Ghana international was clean through, and a brilliant Joan Garcia’s save from Oihan Sancet subsequently kept the scores level.
In the end, though, it was a moment of class that secured the points as, despite being extremely quiet all night, Lamine Yamal bent a wonderful effort into the top corner.
To Athletic’s credit, they took the game to the visitors in the closing stages, but they found Garcia in unbeatable form.
As such, the Blaugrana held on for a victory that means they are now unbeaten in six meetings with Athletic, keeping clean sheets in the last five, while the defeat sees the Basques remain five points outside of the European spots.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Joan Garcia (Barcelona)
