These two sides are the two most successful in the history of the Copa del Rey with Barcelona lifting the trophy on 26 occasions compared to Bilbao’s 23 (although they last won it in 1984) and the two sides have met frequently in the final with Barcelona beating the Basque outfit in 2009 and 2012. It may be ironic that neither the Bilbao Basques nor Catalan Barcelona truly recognise the King but even so, both will be desperate to win the “King’s Cup” yet again.
Bilbao naturally go into this match as overwhelming underdogs as Luis Enrique’s side look to chase the treble having secured the league title two weekends ago with a win over Atletico Madrid and looking ahead to a Champions League final after this game. However, Ernesto Valverde’s side are no pushovers and they have only lost once in the last nine and their continued success is a remarkable achievement given the fact that they can only select players of Basque origin.
For Barcelona there are no such restrictions and their plethora of worldwide stars have turned the season around in this second half of the campaign and having been supposedly on the brink of the sack, Luis Enrique may well finish the season with three major trophies. Spearheaded by Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, they have a front line which can outscore any other in Europe and is arguably one of the best strike forces ever assembled. However, that may well be broken up this weekend with Luis Suarez a doubt for this fixture as well as French defender Jeremy Mathieu.
Barcelona have the edge over Bilbao in terms of the head to head record, as they have over most teams in Spain, and they have only lost once in their last 24 meetings with the Lions.
Barcelona v Athletic Bilbao Betting Tips
- Barcelona to win – We know that anything can happen in the cup but we can’t look past Barcelona for this one and we fully expect the Catalan outfit to win this one inside normal time. They have been on a scintillating run of form recently and their head to head record over Bilbao should mean that they go into the match without any fear. Luis Enrique’s side are 2/9 with Ladbrokes to win on Saturday evening.
- Lionel Messi to score two or more – With the final being played at the Nou Camp that will surely give Barca an advantage and we’re backing their golden boy to come up with the goods as he has done on so many occasions for Barca. He can be backed to score two or more at 15/8 with Bet365.
- Barcelona to win to nil – With odds on a Barca victory very short you might want to opt for Enrique’s side to win and keep a clean sheet at odds of 21/20 with BetVictor. The Catalan side have been good at the back recently and they kept a clean sheet the last time the two sides met at the Nou Camp.
- Barcelona to win by three goals – The last two finals between these two have seen Barcelona win by three goals and they have a lot of firepower going forwards. We fancy them to put quite a few past Bilbao and they can be backed to win by three at 4/1 with BetVictor.