Barcelona vs Antwerp Match Stats Preview
The only previous meetings between Barcelona and Royal Antwerp came in the 1964-65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, with the Spanish giants winning 3-2 on aggregate in the second round (1-2 away, 2-0 home).
Royal Antwerp have lost all three of their away games against Spanish sides by an aggregate score of 10-0. Meanwhile, Barcelona have never lost a home game against Belgian opposition (W7 D1), with this being their first such game since a 3-2 win over Club Brugge in September 2002.
Royal Antwerp last played in the European Cup in 1957, with the gap of 65 years between appearances the longest ever in the competition.
This will be Barcelona's 28th UEFA Champions League campaign, the joint-most along with Real Madrid. It's also their 20th consecutive appearance in the competition, featuring in every campaign since 2004-05.
Having progressed past the first round group stage in 19 consecutive UEFA Champions League appearances between 2001-02 and 2020-21, Barcelona have been eliminated at this stage in each of the last two campaigns.
Royal Antwerp will be the seventh different Belgian team to feature in the UEFA Champions League, and one of two sides making their maiden appearance in the competition this year along with Union Berlin. Only one of the previous six Belgian teams won their first ever match in the competition (D3 L2), with Club Brugge beating CSKA Moscow in the first ever round of matches in November 1992.
Barcelona have lost eight of their last 15 UEFA Champions League matches (W4 D3), as many defeats as they'd suffered in their previous 67 games in the competition (W47 D12).
Royal Antwerp coach Mark van Bommel has won none of his nine UEFA Champions League games in charge (D4 L5) – six with PSV in 2018-19 and three with VfL Wolfsburg in 2021-22. Only three managers have taken charge of more games without ever winning in the competition (Frantisek Straka, Giorgos Donis and Stanimir Stoilov, all 12).
Since the start of the 2011-12 season, only Cristiano Ronaldo (112) and Lionel Messi (92) have scored more UEFA Champions League goals than Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski (91). He's netted 60 in his last 60 appearances in the competition.
Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal could become the youngest player in UEFA Champions League history to be named as a starter, at the age of 16 years and 68 days. Indeed, only Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko has featured in a game in the competition at a younger age than what Yamal will be on the day of this match (16y 18d v Zenit St Petersburg in December 2020).
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