Ter Stegen saves sluggish Barca in toothless performance against Bilbao

The German goalkeeper was a bright spot, but Sunday's effort was an example of the team at its most frustrating

When Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona are bad, some of their players dig deeper into the worst of themselves.

It felt that way at the San Mames on Sunday night, during a spiky 0-0 draw against Athletic Bilbao which was high on tension and low on quality.

Arturo Vidal was more chaotic than usual, giving one ball away in a dangerous position and skewing another pass high and wide of its target, out of play.

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Philippe Coutinho was quieter than ever, appearing once in the first half to mis-control a ball on the edge of his own area, and fading back into obscurity immediately…