Catalan derby 200: Barcelona have won well over half

This weekend’s Catalan derby will be the 200th official meeting between Barcelona and Espanyol. The two sides go into the game in different circumstances: Barça need a win to keep themselves in top spot in La Liga, while Espanyol are still not mathematically safe from relegation and may have to wait until the final game of the season against Eibar to secure their place in Spain’s top flight next year. 

The first league meeting between the teams this season ended goalless at Cornella-El Prat, while there are people dreaming of a repeat of the ‘Tamudazo’ this weekend, which would put the brakes on Luis Enrique’s side’s title hopes. Official meetings between the two sides date back to January 20, 1929, in a cup game, with the Pericos winning 2-0. That season they would face each other four times…  

Barça have won nearly six of every 10 meetings (57.3 percent), while Espanyol are closer to two in 10 (21.6 percent). However, the gap between the two has increased during the last 25 years. 

Thanks to teams like the Dream Team and the Pep Team and led by players such as Koeman, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and, above all, Lionel Messi, Barça have won 30 of the 45 derbies played in the last 25 years, while Espanyol have won just four. 

That leaves 11 draws, such as the previously mentioned 2-2 Tamudazo draw in 2007, when two goals from striker from Raul Tamudo left Frank Rijkaard’s Barça side without the league title. That was a game which saw Messi score with his hand, in a similar way to which Diego Maradona scored against England in the 1986 World Cup.

THE FIRST MEETING, 1901

The first confrontation between the clubs was on January 27, 1901, in the Copa Macaya, which was the predecessor to the Catalan Championship, and Barcelona won 4-1. The game was played on a pitch at the Hotel Casanovas. After that, the two biggest sides in Catalan football played another 63 times in Catalan tournaments, twice in the Mediterranean League, another couple of times in the Catalan League, a competition which took place during the civil war, and two more times in the Pyrenees Cup, which was disputed by sides from France, Catalonia and the Basque Country. 

It wasn’t until January of 1929, though, that they competed in an official game at a national level, in the Spanish Championship, today’s Copa del Rey. It was the semi-final stage and Espanyol won, going on to win the trophy. In April and June they played for the first time in the recently initiated league, which was won by Barça.  

Of the official games from those old championships, meetings in the Copa Generalitat, Copa Catalunya and Supercopa de Catalunya also need to be added in, 11 more games.

Sunday’s meeting will be the 164th meeting in the Spanish League. In the Copa there have been 32 more games. But there have been two other games: Firstly, in the Copa de Ferias in 1965-66. They met in the quarter-finals and Barça won both games (1-0 and 0-1). The other game was in the Spanish Super Cup in 2006, after Barça had won La Liga and Espanyol the Copa del Rey. Once again, it was a double triumph for the Blaugrana (0-1 and 3-0).