Rakitic and Busquets dropped from Valverde side to face Athletic
De Jong, Alena and Sergi Roberto played together in midfield
Ernesto Valverde dropped two players who had been key to his Barcelona project over the past couple of years for the opening 19-20 game in La Liga at Athletic Bilbao.
The coach picked new signing Frenkie de Jong at the base of midfield, with Sergi Roberto and Carles Alena ahead of him. Busquets and Rakitic, previously two essential picks, had to watch the game from the bench.
Clement Lenglet was also preferred to Samuel Umtiti at centre-back alongside Gerard Pique.
Antoine Griezmann made his debut with Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele in attack, with Leo Messi still out with a minor injury.
Topics with the letter
