The 1952 Catalan derby: Burning in the dressing room and a death LaLiga Santander - Barcelona vs Espanyol Resulted in many years of tension

While the rivalry that exists between Barcelona and Espanyol may not be the biggest in a sporting sense, it is certainly up there in terms of the political rivalries.

In 1952, Barcelona had made some excellent signings and the future was looking good for them.

However, later that year Espanyol decided to spoil the party and the arrival of Argentine boss Alejandro Scopelli at the club turned the situation on its head.

His impact was so great that after 12 games had been played Espanyol were top of the league and were yet to be defeated, whereas Barcelona, who at the start of the campaign had been made clear favourites, found themselves in third place and six points behind their rivals.

Scopelli had decided to make his players take oxygen at half time and, although it was debatable whether it had much of an impact, it was a clear example of how the Argentine was revolutionising the club.

The 12th match of the season saw the two rivals come head to head and, even before a ball had been kicked, everyone knew that it was going to be a memorable derby.

Barcelona had far more supporters than Espanyol, so much so that there were huge queues outside the ground and far more fans inside the stadium than it was designed to hold.

Shortly after kick-off, Mauri put Espanyol 1-0 up and Arcas had a goal ruled out.

Due to the tense nature of the match and the enthusiasm from the supporters, the overcrowded terraces began to give way and many fans were crushed in the process, their only chance of survival being to run on the pitch.

Amongst the chaos that ensued, one supporter tragically lost his life because of the pushing and shoving in the terraces and hundreds more were injured.

The decision was made to abandon the match as the safety of the supporters was deemed to be paramount and the only solution to the problem was to allow them onto the field of play.

However, the police chief refused to accept the referee's decision in fear that something else might happen and gave him an ultimatum to either continue with the match or end up in prison.

They decided to carry on playing and Espanyol went to get their oxygen masks from the changing room.

However, upon arriving they were shocked to discover that someone had burned towels, which unfortunately made it impossible to retrieve the masks and it was even difficult to breathe or see.

Both teams returned to the pitch and Espanyol ended up losing 2-1.

After the match, Barcelona began to regain their form and eventually went on to win the 1952/53 title.

Barcelona played down the towel incident by stating that someone must have thrown them through the window.

The events of that match only served to increase the hostilities between the two clubs and relationships were strained for decades.

Many people associated with Espanyol still felt victimised until 2007, when they managed to dent Barcelona's title hopes and consequently helped Real Madrid to go on and win the league.