Athletic Bilbao 1 - 2 Barcelona

Barcelona kicked off their season with a win over Athletic Bilbao at San Mames in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup final.

The starting lineup was:

Valdes

Alves

Piqué
Puyol
Abidal

Xavi (80th Busquets)
Touré
Keita

Pedro
Bojan
Henry (69th Jeffren)

Iniesta, Ibra, Messi and Marquez were all unavailable for this match due to injury. Considering that, and considering the stature of the opponents (remember, Bilbao is the only team aside from Barca and Real that has never been relegated), this is an admirable result.

Barcelona' goals came from Xavi and Pedro in the 58th and 68th minutes respectively, after Bilbao had taken the lead through De Marcos in the 44th.

The result leaves Barcelona in pole position for the return leg in the Camp Nou on 23rd August (next Sunday). For that game, they will have the attacking trio of Iniesta, Ibra and Messi, and hence a goal fest would not be an unreasonable expectation.