Barcelona 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 and it was impossible to avoid questions about the Argentine at full-time.
“I don’t like to always talk about the same thing but he is the best in the world and the opposition might be more afraid if Messi is there,” Koeman admitted.
“For us too, if there is a pass to Leo, normally he doesn’t lose the ball, and today we gave the ball away too often in the first half.You notice it, but that’s how it is, it can’t be changed now.”
It was a difficult night for Barcelona’s defence 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 received news of his grandfather’s death 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 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 semi-finals and then the final of the Tokyo Olympics.