A sublime winner by 38-year-old striker Aritz Aduriz handed Athletic Bilbao victory over champions Barcelona on the opening day of the La Liga season.
Lacklustre Barca were punished when substitute Aduriz found the net with a stunning 89th-minute scissor-kick. Sometimes football is so beautiful and when you least expect it a ball like that comes to your feet and goes into the net,” he said.
Luis Suarez and Rafinha both hit the woodwork for Barca. But the visitors – without the injured Lionel Messi – struggled to impress despite fielding new £107m signing Antoine Griezmann, and Suarez was forced off with a first-half injury.
There were no such concerns for Aduriz and Athletic after the striker – who will retire at the end of the season – threw himself into the air and acrobatically volleyed past Marc-Andre ter Stegen to earn his side a first league win over Barcelona since 2013.
“It’s incredible when the fans cheer for you like they did today,” said Aduriz, who scored a hat-trick against Barca in a 4-0 win in the 2015 Spanish Super Cup. It’s impossible that I won’t end up missing that but everything must come to an end.
He becomes the only player, after Messi, to have scored in 15 consecutive seasons in La Liga.
Source: BBC
