Barca back in business

Barca back in business

Barcelona will look to pick up where they left off last season when they take on Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Supercup, although Pep Guardiola could be without his three leading scorers from their treble-winning campaign for Sunday's first leg.

Between them Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi scored almost 100 goals in all competitions as Barca claimed an unprecedented hat-trick of Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey titles last term.

However, Eto'o moved to Inter Milan this summer, while Henry and Messi could also be out for the trip to San Mames due to fitness concerns.

Henry was forced to pull out of France's midweek international with the Faroe Islands due to Achilles heel problems, although he did train with Barca on Thursday and may yet feature against Athletic, and Messi missed Argentina's match with Russia due to a thigh problem.

So it could be that Guardiola will have to look elsewhere for his firepower.

And with new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was part of the deal that saw Eto'o move to Inter, not expected to make his debut until the midweek friendly against Manchester City as he recovers from hand surgery, it could be that 18-year-old Bojan Krkic will get an early chance to impress.

Guardiola is yet to reveal his plans for the match, but Bojan insists he is ready to play in any of the forward positions if required.

"They're all attacking positions and I'm happy in any of them. I just have to show the boss I can do a job there," said Bojan, who scored one of Barca's goals in their 4-1 triumph in the final of the Copa del Rey last season.

Barca travel to Bilbao having enjoyed a reasonably successful pre-season so far, winning three of their five matches and drawing the other two - all of which have been away from the Nou Camp.

They now have a hectic schedule ahead of them, though, which includes both legs of the Supercup against Athletic, the Joan Gamper trophy match with big-spending English outfit City, and the European Supercup against Shakhtar Donetsk before the Primera Division season kicks off in a fortnight's time.

Athletic, who finished 13th last term and also reached their first Copa del Rey final since 1985, have won four and lost four of their nine pre-season matches to date, which included a narrow success over Young Boys in the third qualifying round of the Europe League.

The Basque side looked in serious trouble after losing the home leg 1-0, but a 2-1 win in Switzerland saw Athletic squeeze through to the Europe League play-offs on away goals. Athletic will next face Tromso, on August 20 and 27.

Unlike Guardiola, Athletic coach Joaquin Caparros has already named his squad for tomorrow's match, and new signings Xabi Castillo and Oscar de Marcos have both made the 18-man party.

Mikel San Jose, who Athletic yesterday agreed a deal with Liverpool to take on loan for the coming season, will not be involved tomorrow though.

The second leg of the Supercup will take place at the Nou Camp on August 23.