Barcelona vs Atlético Madrid LIVE

With Barcelona and Espanyol having been founded in 1899 and 1900 respectively, their cross-city rivalry is a truly historic one which dates back over a century. Here are five things you may not know about the fixture.

1. Barcelona have dominated this fixture

Since LaLiga was founded in 1929 – with both teams as founder members – these two sides have met on 195 occasions across all official competitions. Barcelona have won 115 of these contests (59%). Espanyol have won on 39 occasions, while they’ve finished honours even 41 times.

2. The day Barcelona won the league title against Espanyol

Barcelona once won the LaLiga title in a Catalan derby against Espanyol. It was on the final matchday of the 1948/49 season and they earned a 2-1 victory at home, with César Rodríguez scoring both the Blaugrana goals, to edge them ahead of closest rivals Valencia in the final standings.




3. The iconic ‘Tamudazo’

Several decades after that 1949 meeting, Espanyol gained some revenge as they denied Barcelona a LaLiga title with a dramatic 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou. Espanyol legend and captain Raul Tamudo stepped up in the dying minutes of their encounter on the penultimate day of the season to score a brace and cost Barcelona two crucial points. The five points Barcelona dropped against Espanyol that season – Frank Rijkaard’s side lost 3-1 in the reverse fixture earlier that season – cost them dearly as they went on to lose the league to Real Madrid on their head-to-head record.