Huesca back at Camp Nou, this time in La Liga

This Sunday brings a brand new opponent for FC Barcelona in La Liga, SD Huesca, who last season became the 63rd different team to appear in the Spanish top flight, and only the second from the region of Aragon, which has traditionally been the domain of Real Zaragoza.

Cup meeting

Although they have never met in the league, the two teams did meet four seasons ago in the opening round of the Copa del Rey 2014/15. Barça, managed at the time by Luis Enrique, won 4-0 in the first leg at El Alcoraz thanks to goals from Ivan Rakitic, Andrés Iniesta, Adriano and Rafinha.

Despite the home side using a number of less regular players, the second leg at the Camp Nou was an even more one-side affair, with the Catalans storming to 8-1 victory on the back of a Pedro hat-trick and goals from Sergi Roberto, Iniesta, Adriano, Adama Traoré and Sandro Ramírez.

Barça went on to lift the first of what are (so far) four cup trophies in a row.

Five members of the current blaugrana squad (Ter Stegen, Rakitic, Sergi Samper, Rafinha and Roberto) featured at some point in the two games, while the only Huesca ‘survivor’ is their captain Juanjo Camacho.

Click on the video to see all the goals again.

Historic encounter

However, there was an earlier meeting of sorts between the two teams in September 1926, when the Huesca Foot-ball Club inaugurated its Campo de Villa Isabel ground with a preseason friendly against FC Barcelona.

The sell-out home crowd was disappointed when Barça left stars like Paulino Alcántara and Josep Samitier behind and fielded an understrength eleven, but at least it meant they were able to celebrate an impressive 2-2 draw with the Spanish champions.

Shared colours

We say ‘a meeting of sorts’ because Huesca FC folded three years, to be followed by a series of other clubs before the modern-day SD Huesca was founded in 1960. But all these different incarnations continued the same tradition – red and blue (azulgrana) stripes.

It means there are now no fewer than four different teams in La Liga wearing the iconic colours that are typically associated to Barça (Eibar and Levante are the others).

We know for sure that the Eibar colours were a direct imitation of the Catalan giants, and although nobody knows where the other two teams got their colours from, it may well have been from a similar source of inspiration!