Juan Carlos Unzué, Osasuna's last hero

In the 1986/87 season, the current FC Barcelona goalkeeper coach was Osasuna’s hero in the only time the Navarros dumped Barça out of the Cup.



Destiny can be like this at times. The current goalkeeper trainer for FC Barcelona, Juan Carlos Unzué, was Osasuna’s hero in the only time the Northerners eliminated Barça from the King’s Cup. In the 1986/87 season, the last-16 playoff between FCB and Osasuna came down to a penalty shootout, after Osasuna won at the Camp Nou (0-1) and Barça won at El Sadar (0-1). Unzué, 19 years old at the time, saved one of the five Barça penalties -Marcos’ shot, specifically- and dumped the Catalans out of the competition. Osasuna scored all five of their spot kicks.

That was the only time that Osasuna bested Barça in the King’s Cup. Barça won the other four Cup meetings between the two teams. The first time they met was in the 1935/36 edition of the Cup in the semifinals, where Barça won 9-5 on aggregate (7-1 victory and 4-2 loss).

Since then, both teams have battled in the Cup on three occasions: 1983/84 (quarterfinals), 1987/88 (semifinals) and 1999/00 (quarterfinals). On all three occasions the Azulgranas came out on top with relative ease: 6-3, 3-0 and 6-0 (aggregate results). This Wednesday will be the sixth time Catalans and Navarros meet in the competition. (via FCBarcelona.cat)