Sixth European fixture on neutral territory

This Tuesday brings an unusual Champions League fixture against Shakhtar Donetsk because due to the conflict in Ukraine, the 'home' side are playing their Champions League games this season at Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, Germany.

Aside from finals, European fixtures in a neutral country are a rare thing these days, although there have been five previous occasions when it's happened to Barça- These wre mainly back in the old days before penalty shoot-outs, when drawn ties were settled by a playoff at a neutral venue.

Barça 2-1 Birmingham City (Basel)

The first time this happened to Barça was against Birmingham City in the semi-finals of the 1957/58 Fairs Cup. After losing 4-3 in England, Barça won 1-0 at home and with away goals not counting in those days either, the teams had to make their way to St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland for a decider. Despite the lack of local interest, no fewer than 20,000 people turned up to see the game, where goals from Evaristo and Kubala secured a place in the final, which the Catalans would win 8-2 on aggregate against a London XI.

Barça 1-0 Hamburg (Brussels)

Something similar happened in the 1960/61 European Cup semi-finals, where Barça played SV Hamburg, from the very city where they are playing Shakhtar this week. Barça won 1-0 at home but were losing 2-0 away before a last second Sándor Kocsis goal levelled the tie on aggregate and meant the team would need to be split by a third game, arranged for Heysel in Brussels. Evaristo scored the only goal of the game to earn Barça a place in the final, which they would end up losing to Benfica, in that frustrating game where the blaugrana hit the post four times.

Red Star 1-0 Barça (Nice)

Nice was the venue for the third neutral playoff in Barça history. It happened in the round of 16 of the 1962/63 Fairs Cup, with Bar¡a winning 1-0 at Camp Nou after losing 3-2 in Belgrade. The teams met a third time in the French city, but Red Star emerged victorious 1-0.

Hamburg 3-2 Barça (Lausanne)

The following season there was a second playoff against Hamburg, this time in the Cup Winners Cup, where the chosen venue for the decider was the Pontaise Olympic Stadium in Lausanne, Switzerland. A lively 4-4 draw at Camp Nou had been followed by a less eventful 0-0 at Volksparkstadion, and a 3-2 win in the third game meant that this time it was the Germans that advanced into what were the quarter finals of that competition.

Barça 2-8 Bayern (Lisbon)

Such playoffs became a thing of the past with the introduction of penalty shootouts, but there has been one further case of Barça playing a non-final in a neutral country, although it is a day fans would rather forget. The final games of the 2019/2020 Champions League were all played at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Barça ended up going out after their first game, a horrific 8-2 loss.