Topics: Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, Spanish Football Federation, Copa del Rey
Barcelona and Athletic have met 50 times since 1993. Barcelona has 26 Spanish Cups and Bilbao has 23.

Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona prepare to meet for a 27th time and the Spanish Cup is at stake. Barcelona will try to win it for a 27th-time and extend their lead over Athletic that has won it 23 times. The grounds of San Mamés will be the battlefield for this match.

If Los Cules win the Spanish Cup, Barcelona will be one step away from claiming the treble as they already have won La Liga. The stats clearly favor Luis Enrique and his team, but confidence based on a sheet of paper is not something that Lucho likes to preach over his players.

Luis Enrique has a perfect record in Spanish Cup finals

It wasn't long ago that both teams met in a Copa del Rey final. In 2012, Barcelona won 3-0 when they played at the Vicente Calderón in Madrid. That night, Pedro scored a brace while Lionel Messi added his name to the goal-scorers list with one. It took Barcelona 25 minutes to sentence that year's title in their favor.

Out of the 50 times that both teams have met since 1993, Barcelona has a 32-11-7 record against Bilbao. That means that they have won 64% of their games and only lost 14% out of all the matches they have played against each other.  

The last time that Bilbao was able to beat Barcelona was on January 12, 2013 at San Mames. That day, Bilbao ended a seven-year drought without knowing what it felt like to defeat one of the best clubs in the world. 

Pep said farewell to Barcelona against Athletic 

This time, the goal to beat Barcelona seems rather complicated this time. The Catalan side is coming off a season in which they scored 110 goals and only received 21. With the game being played at the Camp Nou, there is almost nothing going against Messi and company this time around.

The first time both teams met in a Spanish Cup final was in 1920 and Barcelona won 2-0. In 1932, Athletic finished on top by 1-0. Ten years later, Barcelona will regain their historical lead over Bilbao by winning 4-3. Since then, the same final has been played four other times with only one win for Bilbao.

Athletic has not lost in its last eight games, but Barcelona has won nine out of their last 11 games this season. They (Barcelona) have also not lost against their upcoming opponent in the last three games including their last one at San Mamés where Barcelona won 5-2.

Barcelona started to dominate the Spanish Cup early onBarcelona in 1920