Valverde: "We want to build on our strengths"

Ernesto Valverde stressed that his players need to focus "what has brought us this far" in order to pick up a positive result against FC Barcelona on the road.

Saturday's clash in Catalunya, the first at the renovated Camp Nou, sets the tone for a relentless run of games to finish off 2025.

"We're now at a decisive moment with matches coming thick and fast," Valverde said at his pre-match press conference.

"What's more, they're made even more difficult because of the opponents we're facing, but we have to deliver. We're treating them all with the same importance.

"As for LaLiga, we started very well and then hit a rough patch. We won the last match. I believe we're always in a position to compete in one way or another.

"Our idea is to keep adding points. We are Athletic, a difficult team to beat, and that is what we are going to focus on. We want to build on our strengths, which have got us to where we are today.

"You work on similar things but you also try to correct the specific mistakes that might tip the balance in one direction or the other."

With regards to Barça, Valverde believes they're playing at a similar level to last year.

He said: "With their quality, they take control of the game and set up to prevent you from progressing. They push you back into your own area and want to stay very close. That's why they're so dangerous."

The last time the Zurigorri beat Barça in Barcelona was in 2001, but Valverde that it's not only Athletic who have struggled to win matches against the Blaugrana.

"When you don't manage to win at a ground for a long time, there's obviously a reason for it," he continued.

"It's not just us who have struggled there, others have too. Statistics are an analysis of the past. We're in the present now and tomorrow is the future.

"You always hope you can win and break that losing streak."