Iñigo Martínez versus FC Barcelona... and Xavi

While the first new signing of the summer, İlkay Gündoğan, has only faced Barça three times in the past, the second arrival, Iñigo Martínez is much more familiar with the Catalans, for after more than a decade at the top level in Spain, he has met the blaugrana in no fewer that 26 games over the years.

Champion against Barça

Exactly half of those games were as a Real Sociedad player and the other 13 were with Athletic Club. He also won exactly three games against Barça with each of his former clubs. The other meetings ended in five draws and 15 wins for Barça.

Not one of those six victories was at Spotify Camp Nou. Three were at the Reale Arena, two at San Mamés and the other was at La Cartuja, Sevilla when Athletic beat Barça in the Spanish Super Cup of 2021. That's Iñigo's only senior club trophy to date, although he was a European U21 champion with Spain.

Seven games against Xavi

In six of his previous meetings with Barça, his new coach Xavi Hernández lined up for the opposing team. All of those games were while playing for Real Sociedad between 2011 and 2015, ending in two wins for Real, one draw and three win for Barça.

They also faced each other in a game between the Basque Country and Catalonia at San Mamés in 2014, and which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Together for Spain... almost

Iñigo and Xavi never played together, although they came very, very close to it. Both were called up for 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Georgia. Xavi started both games, but Iñigo was an unused sub. So they even shared a dressing room, but were never actually on the pitch together.