Barça travel to San Mamés, Bilbao this Friday (9.00pm CEST) for the opening game of La Liga 2019/20 against Athletic Club.

It’s the tenth time the Catalans have faced the Lions in their debut fixture, and in such games to date have won six, drawn two and lost just once, way back in 1949.

Barça are also looking to extend on what is a remarkable record of having won their opening game in a massive ten seasons in a row. Barça have not lost, or even drawn, their opening match since a shock 1-0 defeat to Numancia back in 2008/09 (the season when we’d go on to win a historic treble…).

Naturally, Barça’s top goalscorer in opening day matches has been Leo Messi, who has scored 14 goals in total. In five of those years (2010, 2011, 2014 and 2018), the Argentinian has had the honour of scoring Barça’s first goal of the league season.

Barça's opening games in last decade