FCBARCELONA.CAT

05.03.2007 19:51

The lucky yellow shirts

FC Barcelona will don the famous fluorescent yellow away shirts when they take on Liverpool at Anfield and hope to have luck on their side as they have never lost using the unique kit since it was introduced at the start of the 2005-06 campaign.

The Blaugrana have worn to bright coloured shirts on six occasions and remain unbeaten with four wins and two draws. Now the kits will be worn again as Liverpool's home colour of all red, clashes with both the Barça first and second choice jerseys.

First phase: Two wins and a draw

Last season, Frank Rijkaard's side played in the yellow tops in all three of their Champions League group games away from home. It made its debut in the competition in September 2005 away at Werder Bremen, in a game that the Catalan outfit triumphed 2-0 thanks to goals from Deco and Ronaldinho.

The second occasion came in Athens. On October 18, 2005, FC Barcelona played out a goalless draw in a tight game against Panathinaikos. In the third and last game in whcih the kit was worn in Europe, the Blaugrana won 2-0 in Italy against Udinese in a game that saw Santiago Ezquerro and Andrés Iniesta hit the target.

Messi earns his stripes

The shirts were then required on February 22, 2006 for the classic encounter with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The game will be remembered for Lionel Messi's heroic performance as he hlped the Blaugrana to gain some revenge for elimination at the hands of the Blues a year before. At only 18, Messi shone and won headlines after he was the victim of a harsh tackle by Asier Del Horno which saw the then-Chelsea full-back sent off. John Terry scored an own goal that night and Samuel Eto'o netted the winner after Eidur Gudjohnsen had scored for the home team.

Lisbon and Milan

The quarter finals pitched Barça against Ronald Koeman's SL Benfica and the yellow shirts were on display in Lisbvon for the opening leg on March 28, 2006. Despite drawing 0-0, the game was littered with chances for the visitors, who had to wait to ensure their passage through to the last four in the home game two weeks later.

At the semi final stage, AC Milan were the opponents and with their mixture of red and black clashing with the Blaugrana stripes, the away shirts were worn in the San Siro. In a heroic performance, Ludovic Giuly scored the only goal of the game to earn Barça a 1-0 victory and after a goalless draw in Camp Nou the team was on its way to the final in Paris.