FCBARCELONA.CAT

05.04.2009 13:40

Xavi and Bayern ten years on

Jordi Clos

Xavi Hernández is the only player at FC Barcelona that played for the club against Bayern Munich when the two teams met in the Champions League ten years ago in the 1998/99 campaign.

The last official encounter between the Catalan outfit and the Bavarian side was a decade ago and there have been plenty of changes in both teams since that the two group games were played. Xavi is set to play on Wednesday against Bayern and he is the only player in the two squads to have played when they last met.

Home and away

On October 21, 1998, Barça visited the Olympic Stadium in Munich. It was only Xavi's third game i Europe and he was introduced as a substitute in the 87th minute to replace Óscar García Junyent. The home side won the encounter 1-0 thanks to a goal from Stefan Effenberg shortly before the half-time break.

Two weeks later the teams met again in Camp Nou and the Blaugrana, without several key players, were beaten 1-2- Giovanni put the hosts ahead, but Zickler and Salihamdzic scored for Bayern to given them victory and to leave Louis van Gaal's team with little chance of progressing from the group stage. Xavi played the entire 90 minutes in that game.

Past experience

Xavi is not the only player to have played an official game against Bayern as Thierry Henry has appeared for Arsenal against the German in 2000 and in 2005. Sylvinho was also in the Gunners' team nine years ago, while Seydou Keita played for Lens against them in 2003 and Eidur Gudjohnsen helped Chelsea to beat them in 2004/05.