Barcelona vs Young Boys facts

Barcelona and Young Boys are both looking to bounce back from opening defeats as they meet on UEFA Champions League Matchday 2.

The Swiss champions were beaten 0-3 at home by debutants Aston Villa in their first fixture, before ten-man Barcelona went down 1-2 at Monaco.

This is the first fixture between the teams.

Form guide

Barcelona

Record vs Swiss clubs: W3 D1 L0 F10 A1
Home record vs Swiss clubs: W1 D1 L0

Barcelona's only previous Champions League contests against a Swiss club came in the 2008/09 group stage, when they won 5-0 at Basel before a 1-1 home draw, Lionel Messi scoring in both games.

They had won 1-0 away and 3-0 at home against Lugano in the 1968/69 European Cup Winners' Cup first round – their only other games against Swiss opposition. They went on to reach the final, losing 2-3 to Slovan Bratislava in Basel.

This is Barcelona's 29th campaign in the Champions League proper, a competition record they share with Real Madrid. They have featured every season since 2003/04.

The five-time European champions reached the quarter-finals or better every season between 2007/08 and 2019/20, winning the title in 2009, 2011 and 2015, but reached the round of 16 for the first time in three campaigns in 2023/24.

Under Xavi Hernández, Barcelona finished top of their section, picking up 12 points, and then beat Napoli in the round of 16 (1-1 a, 3-1 h). They won 3-2 at Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the quarter-finals and then went 1-0 up in the return, but ultimately lost 1-4 to bow out.

Barcelona have won only six of their last 17 home European games, losing six.

The Catalan club relinquished their Liga title to Real Madrid in 2023/24, finishing second on 85 points – ten behind their great rivals.

Barcelona replaced Xavi with former Bayern and Germany coach Hansi Flick in the summer.

Young Boys

Record vs Spanish clubs: W3 D1 L6 F8 A18
Away record vs Spanish clubs: W1 D0 L4

YB last faced Spanish opponents in the 2021/22 Champions League group stage, losing 1-4 at home and 0-2 away against Villarreal.

That made it four defeats in five games against Liga opponents, and three successive losses in Spain.

Including 2024/25, YB have reached the Champions League proper four times – all in the last seven seasons.

In 2023/24, the Swiss side finished third in their section behind Manchester City and Leipzig but ahead of Crvena Zvezda thanks to a 2-0 home win against the Serbian side on Matchday 5; they had drawn 2-2 in Belgrade, losing their other four games.

Young Boys therefore moved across into the Europa League but their campaign lasted only one tie, a defeat against Sporting CP in the knockout round play-offs (1-3 h, 1-1 a).

The Bern club started this season in the Champions League play-offs, winning 3-2 at home to Galatasaray and sealing a place in the league phase with a 1-0 away win.

The victory in Istanbul ended Young Boys' run of five games without an away European win (D3 L2).

YB have never won an away game in nine attempts in the Champions League proper; a 2-2 draw at Crvena Zvezda last season is one of only two games in which they avoided defeat, the other a 1-1 draw at Manchester United on Matchday 6 in 2021/22.

Young Boys won their sixth Swiss Super League title in seven years in 2023/24, their 17th championship overall.

Links and trivia

Andreas Christensen was in the Borussia Mönchengladbach side that reached the 2016/17 Champions League group stage at Young Boys' expense, playing all 180 minutes as the German side won 3-1 away and 6-1 at home.

Dani Olmo, however, was in the GNK Dinamo side that lost 2-3 on aggregate to Young Boys at the same stage of the 2018/19 Champions League (1-1 a, 1-2 h).

Ferran Torres started Valencia's 1-1 draw at Young Boys on Matchday 3 of the 2018/19 Champions League and was a late substitute in a 3-1 home win two weeks later.

Young Boys’ Joël Monteiro made his debut for Switzerland in a 4-1 UEFA Nations League defeat by Spain on 8 September. Barça's Torres, Lamine Yamal and Pedri all played for Spain with Torres scoring the visitors' final goal having set up the third; Yamal had provided the assist for Spain's opener.

Latest news

Barcelona

Barça's perfect start to the Liga season was ended by a 4-2 defeat at Osasuna on Saturday.

Barcelona had won their first seven Liga games for the first time since 2017/18.

Since Matchday 1 they have beaten Villarreal 5-1 and Getafe 1-0, Robert Lewandowski scoring three of those six goals.

Lewandowski has seven La Liga goals this season and Raphinha five – one short of his 2023/24 total.

Pablo Torre scored his first Liga goal at Villarreal.

Goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen tore the patellar tendon in his right knee at Villarreal and is likely to be out for several months.

Andreas Christensen (out since 17 August, Achilles) and Fermín López (31 August, muscle) have also been sidelined.

Marc Bernal is not expected to play against this season after suffering a serious knee injury against Rayo Vallecano on 27 August.

Barcelona's long-term absentees include Gavi (19 November 2023, knee), Frenkie de Jong (21 April, ankle) and Ronald Araújo (6 July, muscular).

Young Boys

Patrick Rahmen's side went down 0-1 at home to Grasshoppers on Saturday, already their fourth defeat in the league this season. They did not suffer their fourth league defeat last season until 25 February.

The Matchday 1 defeat at home to Aston Villa ended YB's seven-game unbeaten run in all competitions (W4 D3).

A 4-1 victory at Winterthur on 22 September brought Young Boys their first victory of the Swiss Super League season at the seventh attempt (D3 L3).

Joel Monteiro scored a hat-trick, his first league goals of the season.

Young Boys' tally of six points after eight games is 11 less than at the same stage of last season.

Saidy Janko has not played this season due to a muscle injury.

Patric Pfeiffer has been out since suffering a hamstring injury on his Young Boys debut on 17 August.