January is an extremely important month in both the life calendar and the soccer calendar. It more or less marks the meridian of the season and during those weeks the title begins to be decided. Some, like the Spanish Super Cup, decide the champion, while others keep or abandon their aspirations. The years since the 1920s brought all kinds of emotions, both positive and negative, to FC Barcelona. of balsa hansi flick He debuted his run of three titles at the Spanish Super Cup in January 2025, where he also missed out on the Curé bench. ernesto valverde What is clear is that this is a transcendent month in the world of football, since in addition to the Super Cup itself, the league matches in which Barça’s goal is to establish their leadership, the last two days of the group stage of the Champions League and the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey will be played in one match.

The first month of 2026 will not have as many matches as the previous months, but among other concerns Barça will be an important target, as they will qualify directly for the Round of 16 of the Champions League with the last two league games. This goal was effectively set in stone by January 2025, for example. Between the league, the Super Cup, the Cup and the Champions League, six to seven games await Barça.

The first of the series is the derby of the century, with long-time best Espanyol eager for their first league win at home against Barça since their new stadium opened in 2009. The derby begins on Saturday, January 3rd at 9pm at RCDE Stadium.

On Wednesday, January 7th, at the King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Barça and Athletic Bilbao will play the first semi-final of the Super Cup, competing for a place in the final on Sunday, January 11th. The single-match draw will then take place on the 13th, 14th and 15th of the week following the Spanish Super Cup, which will feature Barça, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Athletic Club de Bilbao, following the draw for the Copa del Rey round of 16 to be held in Las Rozas on Wednesday 7th January. With Deportivo de la Coruña, Cultural Leonesa, Racing de Santander and Albacete already qualified, these four teams will face their second-division rivals in the round of 16, with Granada facing Rayo Vallecano in the previous round on January 6th. Then, on Sunday, January 18th (9 p.m.), FC Barcelona will visit Real Sociedad in a league match, and on Wednesday, January 21st (9 p.m.), in Prague, the Barça team will visit Slavia on the way to pick up the six points needed to improve their top eight options in the league stage. The first month of the new calendar concludes with Oviedo’s visit to the Sporify Camp Nou on Sunday, January 25th, and Copenhagen’s visit to the Barça Stadium on Wednesday, January 28th (9pm).

This will be the second time in January that Flick will be on the bench for Barça. In the first games, they won six out of eight games, adding two draws, and the 2.5 in the Super Cup final against Real Madrid was an excellent score and a real turning point in a positive direction for the 2024-25 season.

Another promising “January” for the Culé was 2023, the other being the Super Cup in Arabia, where the final against Real Madrid ended 3-1 and they won the title. On the contrary, there were some months at the beginning of the year when the index turned negative. The first month of 2024 saw a nine-game series in which they lost to Madrid in the Super Cup and were eliminated in the Cup against Athletic, culminating in a 3-5 win against Villarreal in the league at Montjuïc, prompting then-coach Xavi Hernández to threaten to step down at the end of the season and warn of a solution. It was a short-lived reversal until the club, chaired by Joan Laporta, decided to change its technical direction.

flick january

2026
January 3 (9pm) Espanyol vs. FCB (League)
January 7th FCB-Athletic (Super Cup semi-finals)
(Possibility of Super Cup final on January 11th)
January 18th (9pm) R. Sociedad vs. FCB (League)
January 21st (9pm) Slavia Prague vs. FCB (Champions J.7)
January 25th FCB vs. Oviedo (League)
January 28th (9pm) FCB vs. Copenhagen (Champions J.8)
2025
January 4 Barbastro vs. FCB 0-4 (Cup)
January 8 Athletic vs. FCB 0-2 (Super Cup)
January 12 R. Madrid vs. FCB 2-5 (Super Cup semi-final)
January 15th FCB vs. Betis 5-1 (League)
January 18 Getafe vs. FCB 1-1 (league match)
January 21 Benfica vs. FCB 4-5 (Champions)
January 26th FCB vs. Valencia 7-1 (League)
January 29th FCB Atalanta 2-2 (Champions)

previous one

2024
January 4 Las Palmas vs. FCB 1-2 (league match)
January 7th Barbastro vs. FCB 2-3 (cup match)
January 11th FCB vs. Osasuna 2-0 (Super Cup semi-final)
January 14 R. Madrid vs. FCB 4-1 (Super Cup Final)
January 18th Unionista vs. FCB 1-3 (cup match)
January 21 Betis vs. FCB 2-4 (League)
January 24th Athletic vs. FCB 4-2 (cup match)
January 27th FCB vs. Villarreal 3-5 (League)
January 31st FCB vs. Osasuna 1-0 (League)
2023
January 4th Intercity vs. FCB 3-4 (cup match)
January 8th Madrid vs. FCB 0-1 (League)
January 12 Betis vs. FCB 2-2 (Penn) (Super Cup semi-final)
January 15 R. Madrid vs. FCB 1-3 (Super Cup Final)
January 19th Ceuta vs. FCB 0-5 (cup match)
January 22 FCB vs. Getafe 1-0 (League)
January 25th FCB-R. Society 1-0 (cup match)
January 28 Girona vs. FCB 0-1 (League)
2022
January 2 Mallorca vs. FCB 0-1 (League)
January 5 Linares vs. FCB 1-2 (Cup)
January 8 Granada vs. FCB 1-1 (League)
January 12th FCB-R. Madrid 2-3 (Pro) (Super Cup)
January 20th Athletic vs. FCB 3-2 (Pro) (Cup match)
January 23 Alavés vs. FCB 0-1 (League)
2021
January 3 Huesca vs. FCB 0-1 (League)
January 6 Athletic vs. FCB 2-3 (League)
January 9 Granada vs. FCB 0-4 (League)
January 13 R. Sociedad vs. FCB 1-1 (pen) (Super Cup)
January 17th FCB vs. Athletic 2-3 (Pro) (Supercup f.)
January 21 Corneja vs. FCB 0-2 (Pro,.) (Cup)
January 27 Elche vs. FCB 0-2 (League)
January 31st FCB vs. Athletic 2-1 (League)
2020
January 4 Espanyol vs. FCB 2-2 (League)
January 9th FCB-At.Madrid 2-3 (Supercup)
January 19th FCB vs. Granada 1-0 (League)
January 22 Ibiza vs FCB 1-2 Cup
January 25 Valencia vs. FCB 2-0 (League)
January 30th FCB vs. Leganes 5-0 (League)

I was laid off in January 2020, and it was effectively a new year’s baptism. The Super Cup proved that it is no longer a benign tournament for non-champions. After two and a half seasons on the curé’s bench, neither the two leagues he had just won nor Barça’s good performance in the Super Cup semi-final against Atlético Madrid in Arabia could save him from his dismissal following a defeat (2-3). This was the newly announced second competitive game of 2020, following the 2-2 match against Espanyol at Corneya El Prat on January 4th. New manager Quique Setién played four sold-out games that January, winning three (1-0 against Granada in the league, 1-2 against Ibiza and 5-0 against Leganes in the cup) and losing in the league against Mestalla and Valencia (2-0).