Hey guys. After 32 hours without sleeping, 3 espressos, one camp nou ticket and 4 goals, i finally return to mi casa.
It was without a doubt the greatest moment of my life so far. I have taken a few pictures and lots of videos (with running commentary for those brave enough to put up with my south london accent). The videos follow our journey down les corts in order to see the camp nou for the first time (yes, there is footage of me saying "oh my god" and its variations about twenty times. There is also footage of me walking from the corridors inside the ground out onto the seating area. Seeing the ground in its full glory for the first time is a moment i will never ever forget (and hopefully nor will you after watching the videos!).
We met the penya out there, including adam although i didnt talk to him much. Adam pulled this armenian chick..im sure they're still together now. The guys from the penya are such great guys. In fact theyre not great, theyre just normal. Theyre just regular guys who love fcb! However we couldnt have met a nicer bunch of people.
My only problem was i was so dam tired i couldnt appreciate the drinks with the penya afterwards (we were in a bar from about 12am to 3am). Keeping my eyes open was a chore. However after me and my friend got to the airport and i had drunk 3 espressos, i no longer felt tired. In fact i even revised at the airport hehe. Im not tired now at all.
As for the game, well...what can i say. The only downside of not seeing messi is that we didnt get to see the best footballer in the world play his game (i love messi. but i dont love him the way i do iniesta, eto'o etc).
It took me the whole of the first half to really convince myself i was at the ground and not just watching the game on tv. The atmosphere was electric, and although i havent watched it on tv, i'd imagine it doesnt come across as great as it acually is. Hopefully my videos will help you apprecaiate it though (yes i have many clips of the songs....madrid, cabrón, saluda al campeón............ toooooooot el camp esssssssssss un clam........o le le o la la........eto'ooooooooooooooooo, eto'ooooooooooooooooooooo).
I sat behind the goal that fcb were shooting into for the second half. However i got a brilliant view of iniesta's goal (as u will see from the photos i was behind the goal but a bit to the right). So i didnt see all the curl on iniesta's shot, but you could see how he placed the shot. It was incredible. The catalan cule next to us was so happy when we scored he hugged my mate and me. And then for each of the other 3 goals we kept hugging each other.
It was a shame to see alves's runs be curbed so much by the tactics. Of course alves had no reason to really attack..sevilla were under strength. But it was a shame we couldnt see the messi/alves duo. Also i would have loved to have seen iniesta on the left rather than in the middle (he played on the right but he tucked in a whole lot). But seeing iniesta was just incredible. He ghosts along the pitch with such ease.
I also feel i gave vv some good luck when i shouted his name when he was warming up.
I saw hleb hleb himself (i had it on video but i had to delete it because i was running out of space. edit: i was just going through my videos and i do infact have that video! Great stuff).
I saw eto'o miss a bag of chances, and score a 'deflection'.
I saw a wonderful goal by xavi that involved henry, eto'o and iniesta.
I saw abidal do his usual stuff.
I saw piqué be an absolute beast at the back.
My men of the match were henry, iniesta, piqué and abidal in that order. Yayá made quite a few mistakes.
Overall like i say it was the best experience of my life. I would love to go to villarreal game but we'll see what happens with dates.
Sounds like the trip was well worth it!
Welcome back maz!