Our previous meetings with Barcelona

Aston Villa travel to Barcelona on Wednesday, looking to maintain their 100% start to the UEFA Champions League league phase.

It will be the fifth meeting in history between the two sides, though the first since Villa’s Super Cup success of 1982.

Here, we take a look at the previous four…

Villa and Barcelona have previously been paired together twice in UEFA competitions – with honours even.

The clubs faced one another in a UEFA Cup quarter-final in March 1978, when Barça emerged 4-3 winners on aggregate, but Villa took revenge in January 1983 with a 3-1 aggregate success in the UEFA Super Cup.

The first leg of the 1978 tie was significant because it marked Johan Cruyff’s farewell appearance in the United Kingdom – and he produced a performance worthy of any football stage.

The Dutch master was given a standing ovation by Villa supporters when he was substituted towards the end of the game, and it proved to be a turning point. After Cruyff had departed the action, home supporters were delighted to see their team fight back from two-down to score twice in the final five minutes and force a 2-2 draw.

Cruyff opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a low 25-yard shot which left goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer helpless, and when Rafael Zuviría headed the second goal 10 minutes from the end, it seemed Barça would be starting the return match with a comfortable advantage.

But a dramatic finale saw substitute Allan Evans reduce the deficit with a diving header from Gordon Smith’s cross, before John Deehan grabbed the equaliser with only a  minute of normal time remaining.

The tie swung back in Barça’s favour at Camp Nou when Villa right-back John Gidman was sent off for lashing out in the first half after being fouled by Antonio de la Cruz.

Even with ten men, the visitors battled bravely, stunning the 90,000 crowd when Brian Little opened the scoring nine minutes after half-time. But Migueli equalised on 66 minutes and Juan Manuel Asensi added a second ten minutes later to book Barça’s passage to the semi-finals, where they lost to PSV Eindhoven.

Five years later, the clubs met again after Villa had won the European Cup and Barça had been triumphant in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. The first leg of the Super Cup at Camp Nou was dominated by the home team, whose winning margin should really have been much bigger than the 1-0 scoreline achieved by a 25-yard Marco Alonso drive which deflected past goalkeeper Nigel Spink.

The game at Villa Park was a bruising encounter, with three players – Evans of Villa and Barça’s Alonso and Julio Alberto – being sent off. As the Birmingham Evening Mail reporter Ian Johnson observed: “As a boxing correspondent, it was more like being at the ringside.”

Until the 79th minute, the visitors’ slender advantage remained intact. But after Peter Withe had elbowed Migueli – a challenge which left the defender needing stitches in a split lip – Gary Shaw pounced on the loose ball to give Villa the lead and put them level on aggregate.

Nine minutes into extra-time, winger Mark Walters was tripped in the area by Tente Sánchez and Belgian referee Alexis Ponnet awarded a penalty. Gordon Cowans’ kick was saved by Barça goalkeeper Pedro Maria Artola, but the Villa midfielder scored from the rebound. What followed was pure mayhem.

Cowans later recalled: “The Barcelona players spent so much time arguing with the referee about his decision that I hit the worst penalty of my career. I normally put them in the bottom corner but this time I hit it only a yard to the keeper’s left and he managed to parry it.

“Fortunately, the ball came straight back to me, and I smashed it into the net. I followed it over the line and hit it against the net for a second time in sheer delight – only for the keeper to kick my legs from under me!

“All hell let loose in the goalmouth, with players squaring up to each other before the ref managed to calm things down. It was one of the most physical games I ever played in.”

Ken McNaught, captain in the absence of the injured Dennis Mortimer, sealed a Villa victory a few minutes later with a diving header – and Villa were the Super Cup winners.

Villa did also visit Camp Nou in August 1984, when they competed in Barcelona’s Trofeu Joan Gamper, a pre-season competition held in honour of Barça's former president and one of their founding members.

The clubs didn’t face each other on that occasion. Barça thrashed Argentina’s Boca Juniors 9-1, while Villa lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich. In the final, Barça were 3-1 winners against Bayern while Villa lost 2-0 to Boca in the match to decide third place.