Barcelona vs Athletic Club, Spanish Super Cup: Preview

FC Barcelona vs Athletic Club Bilbao

Competition/Round: 2026 Spanish Super Cup, Semi-Final 1

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Marc-André ter Stegen, Gavi, Andreas Christensen (out), Ronald Araujo (doubt)

Athletic Outs & Doubts: Yeray Álvarez, Aymeric Laporte, Yuri Berchiche, Maroan Sannadi, Beñat Prados, Unai Eguiluz (out)

Date/Time: Wednesday, January 7, 2026, 10pm AST (local time), 8pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 7pm GMT (UK), 2pm ET, 11am PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Thursday)

Venue: King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Referee: Isidro Díaz de Mera Escuderos

VAR: Jorge Figueroa Vázquez

How to watch on TV: ESPN 2 (USA), TNT Sports 1 (UK), Startimes World Football (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others

How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), discovery+ (UK), FanCode (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others

Following a hard-fought win over local rivals Espanyol in the first match of 2026, Barcelona have made the trip to Saudi Arabia for this year’s edition of the Spanish Super Cup, and the Blaugrana will face historic rivals Athletic Club at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on Wednesday night’s semi-final.

Barça come into this one looking for their first trophy of the season as they try to defend last year’s Supercopa title, which was won in unforgettable fashion in El Clásico after a tough semi-final win over Athletic, who are Barça’s rivals at this stage for the second year in a row.

The Super Cup is the least important of all trophies in every major league around the world, but it always means a little something more in Spain because it’s usually decided with a Clásico, which instantly raises the stakes and sets the tone for future meetings between the two biggest rivals in the country.

So while Wednesday’s semi-final is not that appealing, winning it means a chance to face Los Blancos on Sunday, although Real Madrid have to face Atlético Madrid in the other semi-final, which is no guarantee of a victory. Barça always take the Super Cup seriously, and a trophy in January, especially during a very good run of results for a Blaugrana side in ascension since the defeat to Chelsea, would be a big boost to this season’s squad.

Athletic always offer a strong test as they did last year, but their most recent encounter ended in a dominant 4-0 win for Barça on their return to Camp Nou last November and Ernesto Valverde’s side have been wildly inconsistent this season, which is surprising given the depth of talent in their squad.

The Basques will be missing two key defenders through injury in Aymeric Laporte and Yuri Berchiche, so the entire left side of their defense will feature backups which doesn’t bode well for their chances of stopping Lamine Yamal, who was the star of the show along with Gavi is last year’s semi-final (I miss Gavi).

Barça will be favorites to win this one, but don’t expect an easy night. Athletic have way too much talent and the Williams Brothers will start together, which hasn’t happened a lot this season. Valverde’s team is more than equipped to put up a real challenge, so Barça must be at their best to make sure of a spot in the final against one of the Madrid giants.

Let’s dance.

POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Joan; Kounde, Cubarsí, Eric, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Fermín, Raphinha; Lewandowski

Athletic (4-2-3-1): Simón; Gorosabel, Vivian, Paredes, Adama; Galarreta, Jauregizar; Iñaki, Sancet, Nico; Berenguer

PREDICTION

Athletic have the talent and the fighting spirit to make this a tough 90 minutes, but I still expect Barça to do their jobs and secure a spot in the title match with relative comfort: 3-1 to the Catalans.