Real Sociedad continued their incredible stranglehold over the Catalan side to blow the race for La Liga wide open.
It is now nine years since Barcelona last beat them at the Anoeta Stadium. In fact, Barcelona has only managed two draws there, losing every other match – be it cup or league. Talk about a home advantage!
While the Catalans have regularly demolished the Basque club by four and five goal margins at the Camp Nou, they have yet to repeat the feat away. Moreover, the title race seemed a procession mere weeks ago, but a weak draw and consecutive defeats to two ‘Real’ teams have narrowed the gap between Atletico and Barcelona to a mere three points.
Should Barcelona suffer any other setback, Atletico Madrid will be hot on their heels.
However, they don’t need to face them again – so that’s good! Let’s see which other teams the mighty Barcelona really don’t enjoy playing!
4) Liverpool
They have 10 Champions League titles shared between them, so it’s an authentic clash of European giants.
With Liverpool out of the Champions League for almost a decade now, their record against the European giants has been frozen in time. Against Barcelona, it seems alright but Barcelona will feel the sting more than the Reds. In 8 matches, Barcelona has won 2, drawn 3 and lost 3. Not too bad, right?
However, in 1976, they were knocked out 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup.
25 years later, it was the same story, with Liverpool winning via a Gary McAllister penalty in the first half.
6 years later, Liverpool beat the Catalans 2-2 on away goals in the Champions League quarter-finals.
While Barcelona did beat them at Anfield in the 2001 Champions League, it was only in the group stage – meaning Barcelona have never kicked Liverpool out of the competition.
3) Chelsea
One of the most glamorous ties in the Champions League, it’s always a treat when these two meet.
Despite an incredible 15 meetings over the years, nothing separates the two sides in terms of results. Barcelona have beaten Chelsea 5 times, drawn 5 more and been defeated 5.
With two big 5-star performances (including a remarkable comeback in the 1999/2000 Champions League), Barcelona will feel they have a slight edge over their rivals. With the highly controversial 1-1 draw in 2009 to add venom to the match, it never disappoints.
John Terry’s red card on the way to Chelsea’s incredible 2012 Champions League triumph is just one of a number of red cards to have littered these fixtures. Eric Abidal, Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba are just some of the other high-profile names to have been sent off in these titanic clashes.
Chelsea have often faced Barcelona with numerous suspensions and injuries, but they always tend to put in gritty counter-attacking performances that carve out the weaknesses in Barcelona’s high-possession style. Late equalisers and brilliant strikes by the likes of Frank Lampard and Gianfranco Zola have dotted this traditionally engrossing draw.
One of the fixture’s strangest quirks is that Lionel Messi has failed to net against the Blues in 8 games – although he did assist Iniesta for the last-minute strike that sent them to the 2009 final.
2) Hercules
Considering Barcelona’s fantastic treble in 2010/2011, Hercules might just be very aptly named after they inflicted one of the biggest upsets in history at the time.
Hercules had just been promoted to La Liga when they brought the Catalan giants to their knees at their very own home. Two well-taken strikes by Paraguayan Nelson Valdez and a glaring miss by David Trezeguet meant that Barcelona were fortunate to only lose 2-0 to their newly-promoted opponents.
While they paid them back for it in the reverse fixture, running out 3-0 winners, Hercules finished a very respectable 8th that season.
On top of that, they’ve given Barcelona headaches before. 19 years ago, they did the double over the Catalans, winning 2-1 at home and 3-2 away. With 3 wins from 4 games, Hercules are pretty much Barcelona’s antidote!
1) Dundee United
Younger Dundee fans might not even know this, but they are the one team that Barcelona simply cannot get any sort of result against.
In four attempts, Dundee have comfortably beaten the Catalan treble winners – every single time! Not many teams in the world can boast a 100% per cent record against the Catalan side, but the Scottish club has held that distinction for decades now. Without any Champions League meetings in the works, it looks unlikely that Barcelona will ever get a chance to get one back over the plucky Scots!
Back in 1966/1967, Barcelona were the defending Fairs Cup champions. While they hadn’t won La Liga in over a decade, drawing the fifth best team in Scotland shouldn’t have seemed to tough for the 3rd round – and the first leg was at the Camp Nou.
While Barcelona dictated proceedings, they were pegged back in either half before scoring a late, consolation to set up a finely-poised second leg at 2-1. The second leg in Scotland went very much the same way, with the ‘minnows’ capitalising on chances in the counter to overcome their huge opponents 1-0.
If that was chalked down as ‘the luck of the Fairs Cup’, Dundee United were drawn with Barcelona once again 20 years later, in the reformed UEFA Cup’s quarter-finals. The first leg ended 1-0 through a volley by young Kevin Gallacher – another stunning result.
This time, however, the second leg would be played out in the Nou Camp – with Barcelona boasting greats such as Mark Hughes and Gary Lineker. So when Caldere equalised just before half-time, it was normal order resumed. Or not?
With only five minutes to go for the provincial Scottish side to nick extra-time, John Clark netted the winner, dashing Catalan hearts. Five minutes later, Iain Ferguson scored from a breakaway counter to well and truly establish Dundee’s superiority over Barcelona!
