Barcelona had not lost their first two games in a European cup for fifty years

The 3-0 with which Benfica humiliated Barcelona in the second round of the Champions League is destined to remain in history. For the immediate consequences it will have on the club and on the Blaugrana team, because it accentuates the profound crisis of identity and results, but also from an essentially statistical perspective: it was in fact from the 1972/23 season, therefore practically for fifty years, that Barcelona did not lose the first two games of a European event. Even in that case, the Catalans were the victim of a Portuguese team: in the 32nd of the final of the Uefa Cup, Porto won both in the first leg at home (3-1) and in the return to Camp Nou (1-0). The Lusitanians would have advanced to the round of 16, but then in that round they were defeated by East German team Dynamo Dresden. Barcelona, ​​coached by Rinus Michels, would have finished the Liga in second place and then would have bought Johan Cruijff in the summer later, thus giving a twist to its history.

As also reported by choose, this was the only occasion in which the azulgrana have managed to lose their first two games in a European cup. Then came 2021, a truly horrendous year for the Catalan company, which after losing Messi seems to have embarked on a decline without solutions. Another bad start – but not up to this point – was that of the 1997/98 season, this time in the Champions League group stage: the azulgrana, coached by a Dutch coach like Koeman – Louis van Gaal – were beaten on their debut by Newcastle (3-2 in St. James’ Park, with a hat-trick from Tino Asprilla) and then drew 2-2 at the Camp Nou against PSV. At the end of the group, they were last and eliminated with five points, also because in the third and fourth games Dynamo Kiev managed to win with an aggregate score of 7-0 (3-0 in Ukraine and even 0-4 at Camp Nou) . It was the Dinamo of Lobanovsky and Shevchenko, who would reach the quarter-finals and then in 1999 almost reached the final.

As mentioned, however, what is happening this season is truly unprecedented. Also because the double defeat against Bayern Munich and Benfica came with six goals conceded and zero goals scored. This is also a historical negative: it had never happened, in fact, that Barça failed to score goals in the first two games of any international event. Also in 1972, as mentioned, the Catalans lost both matches against Porto but at least managed to score once in the away match. For Koeman’s team, however, not even this satisfaction came.