Three home games in a row

The fixture list has made the Camp Nou the place to be at the start of the season. It will be the venue for the first two official FCB games of the season (Liga and Spanish Supercup) with the Joan Gamper Trophy in between. All that in just five or six days between August 18 and 19 and August 23.

Real Sociedad, Sampdoria and Real Madrid

It will all start on Saturday 18 or Sunday 19 (to be confirmed), when Tito Vilanova’s side plays its first official encounter of the 2012/13 season at home to Real Sociedad, as determined by the league draw on Tuesday.

The second game will be on Monday August 20 in the 47th edition of the Joan Gamper Trophy, a day for Barça fans to enjoy the traditional season opener against an old friend, Sampdoria, twenty years after the clubs met in the 1993 European Cup Final at Wembley.

And on Thursday 23, the guests will be none other than Real Madrid in the first leg of the Spanish Supercup. The Liga and Copa champions will be meeting in what will be the first of at least four clásicos in the coming season.