The final away game of the Champions League league phase comes on 21 January 2026 against Slavia Praha in the Czech capital Prague, the seventh of Barça's eight fixtures in the initial stages of the competition. 

Opponents 

Slavia Praha are a team moulded in the image of its coach, Jindrich Trpisovsky, who has been in charge at the club since 2017. Since the break of Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s, Slavia had only won the Czech league title on four occasions prior to Trpisovsky's arrival. In the last seven years the coach has led his team to another four league championships as well as taking the side past the preliminary phase of the Champions League on two occasions. 

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As well as two appearances in the Champions League, Slavia under Trpisovsky have also reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League (2020/21) and the Conference League (2021/22). The Slavia coach has also earned himself the nickname of the 'Czech Klopp' due to his team's dynamic, high pressing brand of football and his penchant for wearing a baseball cap on the sidelines. Last season they regained the Czech league title after finishing second three seasons in a row, allowing them to progress directly to the league phase of this season's Champions League. 

Players to watch 

Influential midfielder Christos Zafeiris was sold to Greek club PAOK in the summer but will stay at Slavia until the end of 2025, meaning that by the time the Czechs face Barça the 22 year old Greece international will no longer be anchoring the midfield.

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Nevertheless, Slavia do have plenty of experience with keeper Jindrich Stanek having played in the Premier League for Everton and left back and captain Jan Boril having made almost 200 appearances for the Prague club. Centre back David Zima is another player with experience outside Czechia after three seasons with Serie A side Torino. 

In midfield Michal Sadilek has been brought in from Dutch football to bolster the squad and the main threat up front is tall striker Tomas Chory who scored 20 goals last season for Slavia. 

Previous meetings 

The game will be the third meeting between Barça and Slavia Prague following on from their matches in the group stage of the Champions League in the 2019/20 season. On that occasion Barça won away in Czechia 2-1 thanks a goal from Leo Messi and an own goal from Olayinka. Slavia's goal was scored by their current captain Boril and in the return meeting at Spotify Camp Nou, Jindrich Trpisovsky's team came away with a point following a 0-0 draw. 

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Stadium 

The game in Prague will take place in the Fortuna Arena, a ground that holds 21,000 fans and that was built back in 2008 on the site of the original stadium which dated back to 1953. Aside from Barça's win in 2019 against Slavia, they also played at the stadium in 2011, this time against Viktoria Plzen, the Czechs playing their home games in the Champions League in the capital to increase capacity. On that occasion Pep Guardiola's team won 4-0 courtesy of a hat-trick from Leo Messi and a goal from Cesc Fàbregas. 

History 

Slavia were founded back in 1892 and had great success in the early years of Czech football with striker Josef Bican setting goalscoring records during his playing career from 1937 to 1948. After a long drought in terms of league titles, a win in 1996 started the club's resurgence which has been continued to this day by coach Jindrich Trpisovsky.

 

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