Five things about Cartagena – Barça

Cartagonova Stadium will host a friendly match between FC Cartagena and FC Barcelona on Wednesday. The revenues for the sale of tickets for this match will be destined for those 30,000 people affected by the floods in that area during September. 

The confrontations between the Murcians and Catalans are scarce throughout history, but both clubs share a series of links that give this friendly a special background. On Wednesday, Barça will play Cartagena for the seventh time, and of these, it will be the third friendly.

The 2013/2014 Copa del Rey, the last visit

Barça and Cartagena have twice played each other in the Copa del Rey, in both cases in the Round of 16, and with Barça winning each time. The last visit to the Cartagonova, on December 6, 2013, was settled 1-4, with goals from Cesc, Dongou and a Pedro double.

The 1988/1989 season saw the first match between the two sides in the knockout competition. Cruyff's Barça won the match by a comfortable 0-3. The current Blaugrana coach, Ernesto Valverde, had a great game. He opened the scoring in the 26th minute, and assisted Salinas and Amor for the other two goals.

The Cartagonova, a replica of the Mini

The stadium of FC Cartagena, the Cartagonova, is a replica of the Miniestadi. Opened in 1988 and remodelled in 2000, it is an almost exact copy of the former home of Barça B, Barça Women and U19A, all of whom now play their matches at the new Johan Cruyff Stadium. Interestingly, the Nuevo Castalia, home of CD Castelló, also took the old Miniestadi as a reference.

Ayala and Vega, with a Barça past

There are two players from Barça in the Cartagena squad. The centre-back, Sergio Ayala, from Sant Feliu de Llobregat, was trained at La Masia. After he made the move from U19A to Barça B in the 2012/2013 season, he was transferred to Alavés and later to Valencia Mestalla. The other player with a Barça past is midfielder, Lucas de Vega, who also played in several Barça youth teams. The Brazilian has been loaned to Cartagena this season.

FC Cartagena, since 1995

The current FC Cartagena was founded relatively recently, in 1995. The white-and-black team is the heir of the historic Cartagena Football Club, who retired from competition due to debts, when they were active in the Third Division. The new club appeared under the name Cartagonova FC and started playing Territorial Preferente. In 2003 the historical name of Cartagena was recovered. Their best years were from 2009 to 2012, in Second Division A. In the first of these seasons, they finished in a brilliant fifth position.

'Ephesé', the nickname of the club

Both Cartagena FC and the current FC Cartagena are known by the nickname of Ephesé. A name that comes from the acronyms FC, since Cartagena was the main team in the city and this was recognised by its fans. The characteristic speech of the area causes the ce to be deaf, giving the word a unique loudness.