Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola will hope history does not repeat itself when his side take on Rubin Kazan in the Champions League tonight.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola will hope history does not repeat itself when his side take on Rubin Kazan in the Champions League tonight.
Guardiola was in the only Barca team to suffer a home defeat to Russian opposition when CSKA Moscow triumphed at the Nou Camp in the 1992/93 season.
Barcelona were the defending champions but lost 3-2 at home in the second round to miss out on the group stages.
A repeat result looks highly unlikely tonight with Barcelona top of Group F after beating Dynamo Kiev 2-0 at home and drawing 0-0 at Inter Milan.
Rubin also recorded a creditable draw against Inter but have plenty of work to do after losing 3-1 in Kiev.
In fact, Rubin have played just two away ties in European competition proper and lost them both, against Kiev this season and to Rapid Vienna in the first round of the UEFA Cup in 2006.
However, after being held to a 0-0 draw with Valencia on Saturday which saw their lead at the top of La Liga reduced to just one point, defender Seydou Keita insisted Barca would not be taking their Russian opponents lightly.
"It won't be an easy game," he said. "They will come to the Nou Camp to defend like they all do and we'll have to go out strong to create chances and score."
