Athletic Club

Unfair defeat against FC Barcelona

Two posts, a great save by Ter Stegen and disallowed Iñaki Williams goal see Athletic go home empty-handed against the LaLiga leaders

Athletic Club suffered an unjust 1-0 defeat to FC Barcelona at San Mamés in a match which saw Iñaki Williams have an incredible goal ruled out by referee Jesus Gil Manzano in the 87th minute.

Williams had outpaced the entire Barcelona defence to fire past Marc-André Ter Stegen with the outside of his boot. However, the referee disallowed it after VAR flagged an Iker Muniain handball in the build-up which seemed to have actually come off the skipper's shoulder.

Ernesto Valverde's men did enough to beat Barça but instead go home with a defeat which leaves their European hopes in a precarious position. After a great start which included Julen Agirrezabala rushing off his line to deny Robert Lewandowski, Athletic threatened with when Alex Berenguer got on the end of long pass from Dani Vivian.

Iñaki Williams, who was very active, received a card for a non-existent foul that wasn't on Jules Koundé as preparing to run at Barça's goal. Iñaki then had a low left-footed shot turned away for a corner by Ter Stegen with his left foot. In the following corner Raúl García struck the woodwork with a powerful header.

The 49,741 crowd, a new record at San Mamés, froze when Raphinha made it 0-1 in first-half stoppage time, VAR correctly overruling the linesman's initial offside call. Barça barely threatened again after, the only exception a Lewandowski header from an Alejandro Balde cross.

Athletic never let their heads drop and kept going for goal. Ter Stegen deflected a Berenguer shot on to the post and the German keeper went full stretch to keep out a curling effort from Muniain.

Nico Williams had a go and and then came Iñaki's disallowed effort, which came after a great through ball by Gorka Guruzeta. It was a bitter blow, but Athletic didn't stop pushing for an equaliser. Nico, Yuri Berchiche and Guruzeta went close in a crazy goalmouth scramble during stoppage time, but the ball wouldn't go in.

The outrage was tremendous. Athletic did everything to beat Barça. And with what they did, it should have been enough.