Ter Stegen in goal as Barca travel to Bilbao

Ter Stegen returns in goal as FC Barcelona look to continue their winning start to the season in Athletic Club Bilbao's San Mames Stadium on Sunday night.

Stegen replaces Claudio Bravo, whose move to Manchester City was confirmed during the week along with the arrival of Jasper Cillesson from Ajax as his replacement.

Cillesson was only presented officially on Friday and will not travel, leaving Stegen to return to the scene of his worst moment at Barcelona. Last season saw the German beaten by a Mikel San Jose shot from the halfway line as Athletic beat Barca 4-0 in the Spanish Supercup.

San Jose will be missing from the Athletic side due to a back injury, which is a problem for Athletic coach, Ernesto Valverde, whose side seemed to lack match-fitness during their 2-1 defeat to Sporting Gijon a week ago after a pre-season interrupted by various injuries.

The good news for Athletic is that striker Sabin Merino is available again after suffering a shoulder injury during the summer.

Barca are without Neymar, who has been given holidays until the end of the international break to recover from his efforts in the Olympic Games, while Andres Iniesta and Jeremy Mathieu miss out due to knee and hamstring problems and Denis Suarez and Arda Turan are expected to continue.

Javier Mascherano returns after missing the first game of the season and Luis Enrique has to decide whether the Argentinean plays or if he sticks with Samuel Umtiti, who enjoyed a positive debut in last week's 6-2 win at home to Betis.

The game will be refereed by Mateu Lahoz, who last season officiated in Barcelona's 6-0 win over Athletic in the Camp Nou in a game where Athletic complained he had ignored a foul by Luis Suarez in attack, before sending off Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz in the very first minute of the game.

Source : XINHUA