FCBARCELONA.CAT

03.11.2008 13:21

Camp Nou not a happy hunting ground for Swiss

Vanessa Forns

Basel’s visit to the Camp Nou this Tuesday will be the fourth by a Swiss side in European competition. Barça has won all three previous encounters.

Christian Gross’s side will this Tuesday become the fourth Swiss team to play a European game at Camp Nou. Their predecessors are a Basle XI, FC Zurich (both in the Fairs Cup) and Lugano (in the Cup Winners’ Cup). None of the three won their games.

Basel first

The first match-up came in the 1958-60 Fairs Cup when Barcelona took on a Basel XI. The Catalans won the first leg of the last 16 tie in Switzerland by 1-2. The return came on 6 January 1959.

60,000 fans in the Camp Nou saw Helenio Herrera’s men win by 5-2, with Villaverde, Czibor (2), Evaristo and Hermes González scoring. Barça went on to win the Fairs Cup, beating Birmingham in the final.

Disappointing exit

FC Zurich was the second Swiss side to take on Barça, again in the Fairs Cup in 1967/68. This time round Barça were disappointingly knocked out by a theoretically weaker side.

After losing the first leg away from home by 3-1, Barça won the return leg at Camp Nou on 4 October 1967 with a goal by Zaldúa in the 62nd minute. However, the one nil win wasn’t enough to take the Catalans through.

Aggregate 4-0 against Lugano

The next season Barça played in the Cup Winners’ Cup for the second time. In the last 32 they came up against Lugano. In the first leg at Comunale di Cornaredo Barça won with a Zabalza strike fifteen minutes from time.

In the return leg on 2 October 1968, Barcelona beat Lugano 3-0. All three goals came in the last ten minutes through Mendonça in the 80th and 89th minutes and Zaldúa in the 82nd. That year Slovan Bratislava beat Barça in the final.