Ter Stegen saves Barcelona from defeat vs Athletic Bilbao

Bilbao, Feb 11 (IANS) Barcelona's German goaltender Marc-Andre Ter Stegen prevented his team from going down to defeat with two splendid saves of shots by Athletic Club of Bilbao's Markel Susaeta and I?aki Williams, although the match ended in a scoreless draw.

The result on Sunday, however, was a boon for Barca, given that the Catalan squad never managed to manufacture any real goal-scoring chances, although it did maintain the initiativefor longer than its rivals during the match, reports Efe news.

With the draw, Ernesto Valverde's squad thus dropped two points in the La Liga standings relative to Real Madrid, which is now behind Barca by only six points, but widened its lead to seven over Atletico Madrid, which slipped into third place.

Athletic Bilbao, coached by Gaizka Garitano, meanwhile, remains in the fight to escape relegation after moving four points above the threshold over the past several weeks.

Messi managed to take the pitch, thus setting to rest the prime speculation prior to the road match, and Balenziaga also played, although Muniain - one of the five changes Garitano made after Anoeta, the team's only league defeat - did not come in until the second half, replacing Susaeta.

Athletic was more intense at the start and also more dangerous throughout, but Ter Stegen gave the best performance for Barca during the first half, during which the Bilbao team had three good scoring chances, all of which he stymied.

The first, the best of the lot, was a powerful shot by team captain Susaeta, who played his 501st match on Sunday, but Ter Stegen made a catlike move to deflect it.

The next two shots on goal came from Raul Garcia and Sergi Roberto, with the alert Ter Stegen in the right place at the right moment to either capture or deflect the shots.

Yuri also took a couple of decent shots, without success, during the first half.

Meanwhile, Barca hunted for a combination that could bear fruit, but, despite the efforts of Suarez, Messi and others, nothing seemed to gel for the league leaders.

The second half kicked off very differently with the home squad under siege the entire time and Barca nosing around for a winning goal. Barca held the ball almost the entire half, with Messi getting more and more into the mix and Athletic seemingly in more and more agony.

But it was all for nought, as Valverde's boys just could not seem to fashion a winning scenario near their rivals' net.

Athletic's De Marcos was booted in the 91st minute on a second yellow card, but it didn't matter and the 23rd-week match, played before some 47,600 fans, ended without much excitement, although one can imagine that the Catalans were breathing sighs of relief - having avoided the loss - as they headed to the locker room.