Basel, a city of great European memories for Barça
FC Barcelona will return to play in Basel on 16 August (4.30pm CEST), a city that holds a special place in the club’s European history. Over the decades, the blaugrana have played five official matches there, some of which have been forever etched in the memories of Barça fans.
Early visits
The first came on 26 November 1957, when St. Jakob Stadium hosted the play-off in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final between Barça and Birmingham City. The blaugrana won 2-1 to book their place in the final of the competition.
A year later, on 12 November 1958, Basel once again provided the European stage for Barça. On that occasion, the culers beat a Basel city representative side 2-1 in the first leg of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup round of 32.
The third visit was also for a European final, although with a very different outcome. On 21 May 1969, Barça lost 3-2 to Slovan Bratislava in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final, also played at St. Jakob.
The setting for a first major European title
But if there is one night that has made Basel a particularly memorable city for Barça fans, it is 16 May 1979. That day, Barça won their first European Cup Winners’ Cup by beating Fortuna Düsseldorf 4-3 after extra time. In a thrilling final full of twists and turns, goals from Carles Rexach, Juan Manuel Asensi, Hans Krankl and, finally, Julio Alberto handed the blaugrana a European trophy that defined an era and remains one of the great milestones in the club’s history.
The most recent visit, a five-goal win
The most recent game in Basel came much later. On 22 October 2008, Pep Guardiola’s side thrashed FC Basel 5-0 in the Champions League group stage. Leo Messi opened the scoring, Sergio Busquets scored his first goal for the first team, Bojan Krkić struck twice and Xavi Hernández completed the rout in one of the blaugrana’s most complete performances of that group stage.
Now, almost 18 years after their last visit, Barça will once again take to the pitch at St. Jakob-Stadion.