FC Barcelona visit Deportivo la Coruña on Sunday at 7.00pm (CET), and Riazor has been a happy hunting ground for the Catalans of late. The sides didn’t meet in either of the 2011/12 and 2013/14 seasons because the Galicians were in the Second Division, but the last three times the fixture has been played, Barça have won every time.
Goals aplenty
Those three games at the home of the side that won the first Liga of the century have produced an average of four goals a game for Barça. In 2009/10, they won 3-1 and a year later went even better by winning 4-0. And the last meeting between the teams, two years ago, ended in a thrilling 5-4 victory for FCB.
Leo Messi has played a decisive role in all those games, scoring six goals in total, including one hat-trick in 2012/13.
Change of fortune
Those results have capped a remarkable turnaround in Barça’s fortunes in this fixture. After the Galicians returned to the top flight in 1991 after an absence of almost two decades, FC Barcelona only won at Riazor in one out of eleven visits, including a run of six straight defeats between 1998 and 2002. But then it all changed. Of the nine games played since, Depor have just one win, 2-0 in 2008.
