What happened in previous second legs after 1-1 draws on the road?

Barça collected a 1-1 draw away to Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of their Europa League quarter final. A win would obviously have been better, but it’s still a decent enough result to take back to the Camp Nou for the return fixture.

Things are slightly different this season because the away goal no longer holds any particular value, but history is very much on Barça’s side.

In 15 previous European fixtures in which the first leg was played away from home and ended 1-1, the eventual outcomes have been as follows:

Barça won the second leg: 10
Second leg ended in a draw: 3 (Barça still progressed on each occasion)
Barça lost the second leg: 2

Only two defeats

The first of the two occasions when Barça were eliminated was the shock collapse against CSKA Moscow in 1992/93. Defending the title won at Wembley, Barça looked home and dry after going 2-0 up at Camp Nou, but the Russians then scored three, meaning the Catalans missed out a place in the group stage.

The other defeat was in the UCL quarter finals of 2002/03. The second leg with Juventus also ended 1-1, with Xavi scoring Barça’s goal, but the Italians won it with a goal in extra time.

Tie breaks

In the three cases where the game at Camp Nou also ended in a draw, Barça progressed each time. In the 1963/64 Fairs Cup after drawing with Belenenses of Portugal, rules dictated there should be a playoff, also hosted at Camp Nou. Barça won it 3-2.

The other two instances of second draws were both in the UEFA Cup, against AZ Alkmaar of Holland in 1977/78 and Flamurtari of Albania in 1986/87. Both times, Barça went on to win penalty shootouts.

All's well that ends well

On all the other ten occasions, Barça won the second leg at Camp Nou, and particularly in recent seasons, they have tended to do so in emphatic fashion.

The most spectacular case was the 8-0 demolition of Matador Puchov in 2003/04 after drawing 1-1 in Slovakia.

That case was followed by a 5-2 defeat of Olympique Lyon (2008/09), 4-0 against Stuttgart (2009/10), 3-0 versus Chelsea (2017/18) and the most recent example, the 3-1 win over Napoli, which was played several months after the first leg due to the pandemic (2019/20).

Triumphant against Germans

As well as the aforesaid 4-0 win against Stuttgart, the other time that Barça drew a first leg 1-1 in Germany was in the UEFA Super Cup of 1992. Werder Bremen were the opposition, and the Catalans went on to lift the trophy with a 2-1 win at Camp Nou.