999 league games at the Camp Nou

On Wednesday 26 March (8.00 PM CET, Canal+, GolT), FC Barcelona entertain Celta Vigo in what will be the 1000th home fixture since the Camp Nou was inaugurated in 1957. By bizarre coincidence, if Barça win, it will also be their 1000th home win in the domestic championship, which was first contested in 1929. Here are fifteen interesting facts associated to these two milestones in FCB history.

• In 999 games played at the Camp Nou, Barça have won 754, drawn 157 and lost 88.

• The first league game at the Camp Nou was played on October 6, 1957, a 6-1 win for Barça against Jaen.

• Villaverde, Tejada, Kubala and Eulogio Martínez (3) hit the net that day at the Camp Nou. Since then, the stadium has been witness to 2,524 FCB goals in the league, and 776 scored by opposing teams.

• The Jaen game was originally scheduled to be the fourth of the 1957/58 season. Four days later, on October 10, Barça hosted Sevilla in a game that would normally have been played on September 15, but the stadium wasn’t ready in time and the match was postponed by a month.

• Coached that season by Domènech Balmanya, Barça soon settled into their new surroundings. They were unbeaten in their first thirteen games, all bar two of which resulted in home wins.

• That first defeat came on February 2, 1958, 2-0 to Real Madrid.

• This milestone is reached just two days before the 60th anniversary of the symbolic laying of the first stone of the Camp Nou.

• If Barça beat Celta on Wednesday, it will also be their 1000th home win in the league, a tournament that was first contested in 1929.

• Those 999 wins have come in a total of 1,319 home fixtures, in which FCB have scored 3,545 goals and conceded 1,138.

• Prior to the camp Nou, FC Barcelona played league matches at two other stadiums.

• Les Corts was Barça’s home stadium when the league championship started, a venue that had been inaugurated seven years earlier.

• In total there have been 319 games in the domestic championship with 244 FCB wins, 41 draws and 34 defeats, with 1,011 goals for and 361 against.

• Barça, after leaving Les Corts, played one home game at Montjuïc on occasion of the Barcelona Expo 1929. That was on May 26, a comfortable 4-0 win against Atlético Madrid with goals from Walter, Sastre and Samitier (2).

• Before playing at Les Corts, originally with the capacity for 22,000 in 1922 and later expanded to 46,000, Barça played at several venues.

• It all started at the Old Velodrome at Bonanova (1899-1900) followed by Hotel Casanovas (1900-1901), Carretera d’Horta (1901-1905), Carrer Muntaner (1905-1909) and Carrer Indústria (1909-1922).