#2 Barcelona 0-2 Hercules – 11th September 2010
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Going into the 2010-11 season, Barcelona were undoubtedly the best club side in the world. Not only had they won both La Liga and the Champions League in 2009-10, a great number of their players – Xavi, Carles Puyol, Andres Iniesta, et al – had starred in Spain’s 2010 World Cup triumph.
A September 2010 game against newly-promoted Hercules, then, should’ve been easy. After all, the Alicante-based side hadn’t even been in Spain’s top division for thirteen years prior to the season. In a truly humiliating upset though, Barcelona somehow ended up losing by two goals at the Nou Camp – their first loss there since May 2009.
Paraguayan striker Nelson Valdez scored both of Hercules’s goals to write himself into that club’s history books, while French World Cup winner David Trezeguet went close to adding a third before being denied by Victor Valdes.
Newly-signed Javier Mascherano had a stinker of a debut, too, being booked in the 19th minute and then hauled off at half-time. Both Barca and Mascherano would go on to have the last laugh – they won La Liga by four points while Hercules were relegated – but this was still a humiliating defeat for the world’s best team.
