Barca vs Athletic Club: One of three rivalries present in every La Liga season

This Sunday’s contest at the Estadi Olimpic in Montjuic will be the 240th official meeting between these two clubs.

One of the most historic match-ups in Spanish football will take place again this weekend, as Barcelona and Athletic Club face off once more to continue their special rivalry. These are two of the oldest clubs in Spain, founded in 1899 and 1898 respectively, and they have clashed 239 previous times across all official competitions.

The head-to-head balance is in Barcelona’s favour, as Los Blaugrana have won 121 times to the Bilbao-based club’s 79 victories, while there have been 39 draws. Looking solely at their La Liga duels, there have been 93 Barca victories, 60 Athletic Club wins and 31 draws across 184 fixtures. Given that there have been 92 previous seasons of La Liga, a quick calculation makes it clear that these two clubs have faced off twice in every single league campaign. Along with Real Madrid, these are the only clubs to have never been relegated from the top tier.

The kings of cups

There have been some tense moments to this rivalry because of a very simple reason: they’ve long been competing against each other for trophies. In fact, their very first official meeting was the Copa del Rey final of 1920, when Barca secured a 2-0 victory in the final held in Gijon thanks to goals from Vicente Martinez and Paulino Alcantara.

Just over a decade later, the Basques would enjoy some revenge as they achieved several significant results in a row against Barcelona. Those included a 5-1 win in Bilbao in the two clubs’ first ever La Liga meeting in 1929, and a 12-1 victory for Athletic Club in the 1930/31 league season, which remains to this day Barcelona’s heaviest ever defeat. There was also a 1-0 Athletic