Barcelona are braced for a rocky start to 2026.

Later today, as La Liga returns from its winter break, Hansi Flick’s team face one of the toughest games of their season, nine kilometres south-west of the Camp Nou. At the RCDE Stadium in Cornella, their local rivals Espanyol are having their best campaign in decades.

Espanyol are fifth in the table with 33 points from 17 matches — their best start since 1995. They have won their past five in the league, and only two points separate them from the Champions League spots, although fourth-placed Villarreal have a game in hand.

Off the pitch, a change of ownership has filled the fanbase with optimism. ALK Capital, the investment vehicle run by Burnley’s owner Alan Pace, completed a purchase of a majority stake in Espanyol in October.

It would take a serious meltdown for Espanyol to miss out on qualifying for European football this term. Looking down the table, they have a 10-point cushion from seventh-placed Celta Vigo.

But they have not beaten Barcelona in La Liga since 2009.

Despite Barca’s recent dominance and established superiority in terms of history, fanbase and budget, the rivalry between the clubs is fierce. It will be especially so on Saturday. This is going to be the Joan Garcia derby.

The goalkeeper, 24, will return to the club he joined as a 15-year-old; the club he left last summer to join Barca who paid his €25million (£21.7m; $29.3m) release clause and who see him as their No 1 for years to come. He has been outstanding so far this season, and nobody at Barca has any regrets over the move. The switch did, however, bring costs for Garcia.

Many Espanyol fans felt betrayed by Garcia’s decision to leave. Tensions are so high that the club has felt compelled to take special measures for this weekend’s match.

Espanyol celebrate with home fans after beating Rayo Vallecano in December (Javier Borrego/Europa Press via Getty Images)

Espanyol have installed safety nets behind both goals to try and stop fans throwing objects at him during the game. In recent weeks, local media reports carried word that several local Espanyol supporter groups were discussing the idea of pelting him with rats. At a central Barcelona food market over a month ago, one of the stall owners told me fans had been asking around for advice on how to get hold of them.

Away fans are banned. Espanyol said earlier this week that any supporters wearing “shirts, scarves, hats, flags, or any other insignia of the away team will not be allowed entry,” adding: “This rule applies to all areas of the stadium.”

There will be extra security checks, and a longer-than-usual list of prohibited items includes “motorbike helmets, suitcases, laptops and any object that could be thrown onto the pitch”.

Back in September 2024, a referee was struck by a lighter at Espanyol’s ground during a match with Villarreal. The club was punished with a suspended stadium closure which would come into effect if another such incident takes place.

Garcia as an Espanyol player in April 2021 (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In June 2023, Espanyol had their stadium shut down for two games because of a big pitch invasion after a 4-2 defeat by Barcelona the month before. In that game, Xavi’s side clinched La Liga’s title and started celebrating on the pitch, until local fans jumped in.

“Fans are entitled to boo or whistle whoever they want, but it has to be done from a perspective in which our own club can’t be harmed by that,” said club captain Leandro Cabrera in an interview with TV3 this week.

“With Joan’s departure, Espanyol got an amount of money that has been very useful to secure important signings and improve the squad, so whatever happens from now on it can’t have a bad impact on our club.”

Garcia is far from the first Espanyol player to leave for Barcelona. In fact, he is the 38th footballer to make the move — but he was the first to do it in 31 years. The last player to switch before him was Russian striker Igor Korneyev, who joined Johan Cruyff’s Barca back in 1994.

The fact that Garcia was one of their own, though — an academy graduate — contributes to the animosity. He joined at 15 from CF Damm, a local youth club with a strong history of producing talent. He was promoted to Espanyol’s reserve team in 2019, aged 18, and two years later made his senior professional debut — although it wasn’t until the 2023-24 season when he fully established himself in goal.

That season, his performances helped propel Espanyol to promotion up to the Spanish top flight. Last term, in a very limited Espanyol side deeply impacted by financial constraints and tensions over the previous ownership, Garcia was their player of the year. Countless heroic displays were crucial to their survival — sealed on the final day with a 2-0 win over Las Palmas.

After that victory, with rumours and reports already suggesting he was being tracked by big European clubs interested in paying his release clause, Garcia posted a picture on his Instagram profile celebrating the feat and kissing Espanyol’s badge.

Joan Garcia Pons. Wall. 🧱#LaLigaHighlights pic.twitter.com/wMkXhPkDni

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 2, 2025

He embodied everything any Espanyol-supporting kid wanted to be; a world-class player representing an institution that is constantly overshadowed by Barca, one who proudly expressed his affection for the club.

Back in May, even Espanyol’s manager Manolo Gonzalez said he did not believe Garcia would be leaving.

“Knowing Joan (Garcia), I highly doubt this move (to Barca) will happen,” he said at a press conference. “I won’t say I’d dare to put my hand being chopped with that, but pretty close to that.”

When the move was eventually confirmed in June, Garcia had to turn off comments on his social media posts. In his hometown of Sallent, about an hour’s drive north of Barcelona, graffiti labelled him a “traitor”. Espanyol only published a one-line club statement confirming his release clause had been met.

Edu de Batlle is a RAC1 journalist who has reported and commentated on Espanyol games for the past 20 years. He says Garcia’s move “hurt the fanbase deeply”.

“Barca signing talents from Espanyol is something that has always happened at youth levels,” he adds. “Alejandro Balde, Marc Cucurella and Ilaix Moriba made that move in recent years. That is how the system works. Barca is a club that has a bigger appeal. It’s not news to Espanyol — although of course it still wears out fans to see it.

“But Joan has done it while established as a first-team star — and after many fans believed he would not do it, out of respect.”

Even without Garcia, Espanyol have made a great start to the season, having wisely invested the money from their goalkeeper’s sale to build one of the best squads they’ve had in years, including €6million spent on 23-year-old striker Roberto Fernandez and €5m on 24-year-old holding midfielder Urko Gonzalez, who impressed last term on loan from Real Sociedad.

Garcia’s replacement is 33-year-old Serbian Marko Dmitrovic, who arrived on a free transfer after leaving Leganes and has been one of the best goalkeepers in La Liga this season.

“If we assess the Joan Garcia deal today, it’s fair to say it’s been a win-win for both clubs,” says De Batlle.

“Espanyol have spent the money very well. But that does not mitigate hard feelings, because they know the club would have got Joan Garcia’s money regardless if he joined Barca.

“Joan could be in the Premier League, Espanyol’s money would be the same and that sense of betrayal would not be here.”