An Audience with Barcelona

SPENDING an enjoyable day in the city was all I needed to get me in the mood for the evening’s entertainment as last night (Sunday) was the big night on holiday for me as I travelled to the Nou Camp to watch Barcelona play Athletic Bilbao in La Liga.

Having managed to navigate the tight streets of Barcelona to pick up my tickets earlier in the day, I was extraordinarily enthusiastic to make my way to the stadium to watch the game. I have been to the Camp Nou before for a stadium tour, but that was in the daylight and without 120,000 other people surrounding me.
The atmosphere for a night game was bound to be special as thousands upon thousands of Catalans hoped that Barca could put their nightmare against Arsenal behind them and returning to winning ways against the team lying in 5^th place.

Real Madrid had won the previous day and therefore it was even more important for Barcelona to win their game in hand and maintain the gap at the top of La Liga. All throughout the day I had been seeing people wearing shirts and scarves of the famous club, it is something unlike I have seen anywhere else around the world if I am honest.

When you walk the streets of Liverpool or Manchester, there is always a divide in the number of blue and red shirts you will see, the same in London where there is no corrolation between the colour of the shirt and the teams which play in the city. Espanyol also play in Barcelona but I have a feeling that they are massively outnumbered by the fanatical support that the city’s ‘main’ club possess, and that was on show throughout the day.

After grabbing some dinner (and causing indigestion by waffling down a pizza and some potato wedges) I headed back on the route I had taken sometime earlier to each the Metro where I would be able to board and swiftly travel to ‘Les Corts’ which is one of five stops around the Nou Camp, and the closest one located to my seat.

Boarding the tram it was pretty clear that plenty of other people had the intention to watch Barcelona play this evening, and as we passed bars and restaurants on the street there were plenty of blue and red clad fans preparing for the game. I exited at ‘Zona Universitad’ and headed to the Metro where I was quite surprised to not see about a million people trying to do the same thing. ‘Zona’ is right at the end of the ‘Green Line’ in Barcelona so therefore it was an empty train for me to climb on, but even as we got to a couple of stations before my stop, there were no more than a few people on the train with me.

Once I got to my destination and headed out of the station, it was pretty obvious that I was not going to enjoy this experience alone. The streets were lined with people, and I hardly needed a map and a compass to lead me to the Stadium. The Nou Camp is pretty subtle as football stadiums go, of course it is massive, and can hardly blend in with the background, but from the angle I attacked it, it’s pretty hidden behind the apartment blocks before shining like a beacon, there is is in front of you.

By this point, I was thrilled to be in range of something I have seen on television so often, and that is the most recognizable stadiums in world football. I always get a special sense of anticipation when I visit a football ground and particularily when I go to watch Arsenal, but this was totally different.

Lining the streets there were plenty of souvenier stalls and people offering snacks and drinks in preperation for the game. I was to enter through ‘Zona 19’ which is basically the outside gate that you have to travel to before getting into the stadium. I walked around for a bit, just soaking in the atmosphere, and as there was more than half an hour to the game, I realised this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Next I was to navigate where I was to head to next, and as I walked around I eventually found ‘Enter 50’ which was the turnstile that I was to head through. Entering there I was confronted by a large number of stairs which wound their way up to my seat. I climbed up, and up, and up, and up, stopping off at each level to gain a measure of the teriffic view which waited me before eventually arriving at ‘Block 526’ which is where my seat was located.

Like a mischevious teenager on his first trip to the cinema with his girlfriend, I was located somewhere in the back few rows. By this point it made no difference to me as I was about to achieve a dream. Just as I stepped out to look over the beautiful view of the arena below, the Barcelona team came out to a teriffic applause from their supporters. I did the tourist thing and took a few pictures before deciding it was about time to find my seat and settle in for the match.

Rows at the Nou Camp go between 1 and 40 on each tier of the ground. I was in top corner of the highest tier about eight rows from the back and after some struggles to find my seat (for some reason the even numbers go one way and the odds go the other, so if you go with a friend and you’re in seat ‘2’ and they are in ‘4’ you’re actually next to each other) I found row 32 seat 16 and watched on as the Barcelona starting eleven was announced and began warming up in front of me.

More excited than a child on Christmas Eve or a teenager the day before their 18^th birthday, I was pretty overwhelmed by exactly what I was witnessing meters from my face. Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, they were all there, with the rest of the squad, and at the other end of the pitch, a team overachieving well in La Liga with a top class Spanish international in their ranks.

By this point, my camera was going into overdrive. I was taking pictures of pretty much everything, including a small bunch of Athletic supporters who were right at the back of the ground next to a giant scoreboard. I wondered if they could see, or even be heard down on the pitch from up there.

As the players headed back to the changing room for what I presume were final instructions, several Barcelona youth teams came out on the pitch to warm applause as I waited with bated breath for the sides to come out.
Greeted by what I can only presume is the Barcelona ‘Anthem’ (of which I know one word “Barca, Barca, Barca”, or does that count as three) the players were roared on by the enthusiastic crowd, clearly waiting to be entertained by their team.

Having watched Barcelona several hundred times on TV, I knew exactly what to expect, and straight from the off, the home side began to get into their passing rhythm. It didn’t take long for the first goal of the match, a good cross from Pedro on the left was headed back by Dani Alves to Villa who slotted the ball home to make it 1-0.

The rest of the half was pretty much spent admiring the play of Barcelona. Messi (of course) and Pedro, were the stars of the show, though I did admire the way in which Iniesta and Xavi kept the midfield ticking over. Some of Barcelona’s passing movements are quite, for want of a better word, ridiculous. The second part of the half was basically attack against defence as Barca tried to walk the ball into the net, they came closest to doing this when Villa hit the crossbar with a sublime chip from a tight angle.

At the half time interval, I decided to go all the way to the back of the ground and take some pictures of not only the stadium, but the superb view which you get from the concrete wall at the back of the tier I was in.
Before I knew it, we were back to the action, and most surprisingly of all Athletic scored and found themselves back in the game.

Some sloppy passing at the back for Barcelona saw Pique commit a foul in the penalty area, allowing Athletic to score with only their second shot on target of the game. Pique was lucky not to be sent off a few moments later when he took out an Athletic player who was running clear on goal. I think the angle the player was coming in on goal prevented the Spanish World Cup winner being sent off to be honest, it was a pretty blatant shirt tug and he “took one for the team” as they say.

As the half wore on, Barcelona got their rhythm back together and only their final passes were letting them down and preventing them from scoring. Messi was denied an obvious penalty after being taken out by two defenders. The move that led up to it was magical as he body sweved three times in the same direction but took on a defender each time, just before he was about to score, two players sandwiched him and somehow the referee didn’t award a penalty.

By this point, Barca fans were getting pretty frustrated with the officials, the white hankies were out everytime a decision didn’t go in their favour, and on the pitch Guardiola changed things to move Busquets from left-back to central midfield. The previously felled Messi got revenge on the spiteful defenders who knocked him to the ground as Villa crossed from the right allowing Messi to get in front of his defender and best the goalkeeper for 2-1.

As soon as Barca scored, that knocked the stuffing out of Athletic and it was quite clear there was only going to be one winner.
The final whistle blew to great applause from the crowd, and I was kinda sad that my experience in the Nou Camp were coming to an end. To ensure that I made the most of my time being there, I decided not to sweep out with the crowds who headed for the streets, but stopping in the stadium for a little I was able to reflect on what a great experience it was to be watching such a talented team in such a fantastic arena.

As I headed out of the ground, I was on a bit of a high (metaphorically and physically) and all I could see for yards around were queues and queues of people heading home from the game. Where there had been cars, motorbikes and busses before the game, there were now Barcelona fans as the traffic tailed back towards the metro station where I arrived.
Even though I appeared to be going in the opposite direction to most of the Barcelona fans on the way to the game, I decided not to even bother trying to wait in the queue at Les Corts and I spied quite a few people obviously walking onto the next closest station.
After about a twenty minute walk I found my way to Saints Estacio, arriving just in time to catch one of the last few metros out of the city. Once I got back to ‘Zona’ there was a bit of a wait for the tram back to the hotel, but still all around me seemed to be Barcelona fans.

Even as I walked back to my hotel there was a couple of people clad in scarves and shirts of the famous Catalan team.

I don’t think I have ever had a night like Sunday at the Nou Camp, and I’m pretty sure that as long as I live, I will never experience another football related moment that meant quite as much as that to me.
I loved every second of my time in the stadium and watching the game took my enjoyment of football to another level. I look forward to the next great experience that I can share with many others whilst enjoying ‘the beautiful game.’