Injuries, tiredness in Spanish Supercup

FC Barcelona and Athletic Club Bilbao will have to overcome injuries and tiredness when they face each other in the first leg of the Spanish Supercup on Friday night.

Thee game pits league and cup winners, Barca against Athletic Club, who they defeated in the final of the King's Cup on May 30, with the first leg to be played in Athletic's San Mames Stadium.

The Basque side go into the game with a serious of injuries as first team regulars Iker Muniain, Ander Iturraspe, Mikel Rico and Inaki Williams, who scored their consolation goal in the Cup final are all out of action.

Barca meanwhile have the duel problem of injuries and tired legs to overcome given that Neymar, Jordi Alba and perhaps, Andres Iniesta, who had to leave the field in the second half of Tuesday's dramatic European Supercup win over Sevilla after feeling a slight muscle problem.

That game ended in a thrilling 5-4 win for Barca to give them their fourth title for 2015, but the fact the game had to be resolved in extra time is probably the last thing that coach Luis Enrique needed, given that it finished in the early hours of Wednesday morning, leaving his players very little time to recover from 120 minutes intense football and to prepare for the trip to Bilbao.

The Barca coach would well make some rotations for Friday and it will be interesting to see if Pedro Rodriguez, who scored Tuesday' s winning goal, will start, giving that everything points to Pedro joining Manchester United in the near future.

Claudio Bravo could get a chance in goal and Luis Enrique could make changes to a defense, which has leaked too many goals this summer.

Barca are not yet at their best, but as they showed on Tuesday night, they still have Leo Messi and the Argentinean is usually the key factor in games like this.

The return leg is in Barcelona on Monday night. Endi