“… On Saturday, the Camp Nou will once again host a game, two and a half years after it was shut for a €1.5billion (£1.3bn; $1.8bn) redevelopment. It has felt like an eternity for Barca fans — and many neutrals besides — with the team mostly playing across the city at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on Montjuic. Barca’s game against Athletic Club and the celebrations around it will be historic — just like that first match against a Warsaw XI on September 24, 1957. As The Athletic discovered, much has changed since then, but there are also parallels with the circumstances around the Camp Nou’s reopening this weekend. Why did Barcelona play against a team from Warsaw, Poland? Some believe it was an act of protest; with Spain under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Catalans were referred to as ‘polacos’ (Polish) in a derogatory way by the rest of Spain. But that was not the reason. …”
NY Times/The Athletic

Eulogio Martinez, on the floor, scores Barcelona’s opening goal