FC Barcelona begins a new journey in the 2023/2024 Champions League. Xavi Hernández’s team seeks to make up for its disastrous performances in the last two editions of the top continental competition, being eliminated at the first change. For now, the goal is none other than to get past the group stage. In this initial round, in Group H, their rivals are Porto, Shakthar Donetsk and Royal Antwerp. Wait, the Royal Antwerp? Wasn’t it Antwerp?
The name of the Belgian team may be unknown to many, but it is a historical figure in Belgian football that has risen from the ashes in recent years. In fact, their presence in the Champions League is due to the league title they won last season, a feat that Royal Antwerp had not achieved for 65 years (1956/1957) and which they completed by also winning the Cup and the Super Cup. . A treble under the direction of Mark van Bommel, former Barça player and current Royal Antwerp coach.
Likewise, the Flemish team had to get rid of AEK Athens in the previous round of the Champions League to compete in the group stage. Fortune wanted Barcelona to be one of the rivals that visit the Bosuilstadion stadium in Antwerp, a real gift for a team that has never been in the current Champions League (they did play in the old European Champions Cup in the 1957 season/ 1958). However, there is a European precedent for a duel between Barça and Antwerp: the second round of the Fairs Cup in the 1965/66 season.
Furthermore, Barcelona’s first rival is the oldest football club in Belgium. It was founded by some British students in 1880 as Antwerp Cricket Club, an entity where cricket, tennis, rugby and football began to be practiced. That is, Antwerp is what the team is called, although it is popularly better known by the name of its city, Antwerp.
And the city of Antwerp is written Antwerpenen in Dutch due to a curious origin. Legend has it that Druon Antigoon lived in Antwerp, a giant who demanded money from anyone who wanted to cross the Scheldt River; If someone did not accept the toll, the giant would cut off one of their hands and throw it into the river. Until one day a Roman soldier named Silvio Brabo confronted Antigoon, defeated him, dismembered his hand and threw it into the river. And that is the origin of the name Antwerp, since Antwerpen comes from the Dutch hand werpen, which means “to throw the hand.”
