Camp Nou Return Puts Barça’s Historic Winning Run in Focus

FC Barcelona return to the Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday night for a LaLiga fixture against Racing Santander that carries an unusual historical weight. Hansi Flick’s side arrive on the back of six consecutive wins, five in the league and one in the Champions League, and a victory over Racing would extend that run to seven for the first time in the club’s history, according to Marca.

The visitors offer some reason for Catalan optimism on paper. Racing have not won away from home all season and have gone 22 years without beating Barcelona, a drought that stretches back well beyond the current squad’s careers. Even so, the Blaugranes are wary of complacency after Levante cut a 2-0 lead down to 2-3 last weekend before Barça eventually closed it out 2-4, a wobble Flick’s group insists it has learned from.

Flick is expected to rotate his XI again with Sevilla waiting at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán on Saturday, the third match in a congested week. Roony and Frenkie de Jong remain sidelined through injury, opening the door for Christensen, Dani Olmo, João Cancelo and Karim Adeyemi to get minutes. Raphinha and Lamine Yamal are still expected to anchor the attacking line regardless of the changes elsewhere, continuing the pattern Flick set during the win over Levante.

Racing’s own team news is not straightforward. José Alberto is missing Andrés Martín and Eriksson through injury and Almeida through suspension, though the visitors travel with confidence after beating Alavés 2-1 at El Sardinero. Moroccan forward Zabiri, who has scored five goals already this campaign, stands out as the clearest attacking threat José Alberto’s side can call on. Barcelona’s fitness picture looked less concerning by midweek, with Goal.com reporting that Eric Garcia’s bloody-nose scare at Mestalla was not expected to keep him out for long.

Marca’s framing of the record puts the current run in useful context. Barcelona have opened a season with six straight competitive wins only three times before, in 1929-30, 1960-61 and under Ernesto Valverde in 2018-19, and none of those runs ever stretched to a seventh win. Racing’s own recent history against Barça offers little encouragement for the visitors: their last competitive meeting ended 0-2 in Racing’s favour on the scoreboard reversed, a Copa del Rey defeat at El Sardinero last season, while their last LaLiga visit to Camp Nou came in October 2011.

For Flick, the priority remains straightforward regardless of the record books: arrive at the international break top of the table and unbeaten. A seventh straight win would simply be the byproduct of getting that part right against a Racing side still searching for its first away point of the season.