06.01.2011 12:00

Quarter final qualification trivia

www.fcbarcelona.cat

The win against Athletic Bilbao and therefore qualification for the last eight of the Copa del Rey, all thanks to Abidal’s first goal for Barça, produced plenty of nuggets of information.

► Wednesday saw Josep Guardiola face Athletic Builbao for the tenth time as a manager. It’s the club he has faced the most and with a very positive balance for FC Barcelona. In these ten games, they have won seven and drawn three.

► This game was the 150th for Josep Guardiola in charge of FC Barcelona, in which time he has totalled 109 wins, 28 draws and 13 defeats, with 376 goals for and 112 against. That equals the record of the legendary 1950s coach Fernando Daucik and puts hi8m sixth in the all-time list behind Cruyff (430), Rijkaard (273), Michels (264), Van Gaal (200) and Venables (169).

► Xavi Hernández has now officially worn the FC Barcelona shirt 550 times, the most ever, even more than the previous record holder Migueli. He came off in the 77th minute and even the San Mamés saw fit to offer him an ovation.

► The newest signing, Ibrahim Afellay, made his debut for FC Barcelona last night, coming on in the 90th minute as a replacement for David Villa and at a tense time following the home side’s equaliser.

► This was only the third goal Abidal has ever scored as a pro. The first two were at Olympique Lyon, and curiously he has yet to score in a league fixture. He scored a cup goal against Lille, and also got one in the League Cup semi finals on January 17, 2007 against Le Mans. Abidal also scored a penalty in the World Cup final shootout against Italy in 2006, which France ultimately lost..

► It was Barcelona’s 25th game in a row without defeat, thus beating the 2005-2006 record. The club is now just two short of the amazing run of 27 unbeaten matches in 1973-74.

► Three of the Barça players, Keita, Adriano and Alves, met on old friend in Joaquín Caparrós last night. The trio all played under the Andalusian’s orders in their time at Sevilla.

► Last night was the third time in a row that Josep Guardiola’s side went in at half time with the score at 0-0. The other two were the first leg of the cup tie with, which ended 0-0, and Sunday’s league fixture with levante, which ended 2-1. The goals may have been short in coming, but Barça are into the cup quarter finals and are still top of La Liga.