Basel fan René travelled to Barcelona last week to see his team drawing one all with Barcelona. He sent us this report.
That's Football!
Well, we bought our tickets in Basel just before the first game. After the horrible 0-5 in Basel, we were not having any expectations for the return game in Camp Nou. Even more, every result at the same level was acceptable to us, upfront........
We travelled to Barcelona by plane from Geneva very late in the evening. From the airport we got straight to Camp Nou. Huge, really huge area. After surrounding the ground, we were entering together with the FC Basel mob quite quickly. In general the stadium is okay, but the comfort is not the standard in Basel or other modern grounds.
The places we got together with all the other fans were very high up, I guess it might be around 150 m to the pitch. This is not really interesting if one like to "see" football. That's probably the reason why some of our fan were whistling against the own team entering the pitch, they thought it's Barca...........
The game was terrific good for us. After five minutes we finally had the ball first time, so business as usual. But our tactics was different than in Basel, and obviously quite successful. The coach had chosen to use the standard 4-5-1 system and not the 4-4-2 like in Basel. The result was that our team was closer together and had more players near the ball, attacking was quicker although the team gave lot's of ground to Barca. Also as a result of 4-5-1 tactics, the main problem of the first round was almost solved: the wingers of Barca could not go into a 1-1 situation, but were always against 2 of our players. So the wings were closed for Barca.
It was normal game, ball possession like 65% to 35%, but Barca did not score until he came. This small boy, called Lionel Messi, he entered the pitch and we fans were taking a deep breath. With his first touch he almost went through, but with the second touch, 90 seconds after entering the game, he did it. Unfortunately.
We felt our team was doing very good until this goal came and we were afraid that might change now. But it didn't, they kept doing what they were able to.
And then, yes we got crazy. Eren Derdiyok smashed the ball into the net, volley. Wow. We got crazy up there. The last 10 minutes was suffering, begging, crying, shouting, blaming but then, the whistle, great relief.
The result is good for us. Not only that we are the first club from Switzerland winning a point at Camp Nou, pride was back after the first game. Barca had given away the first game in a row of 11 victories and we did it. We were enthusiastic, really great.
Even more, now we have a small chance to fight for 3rd place in the group against Shakhtar Donetsk, so we could enter Uefa Cup next year. And I think we have a chance if we don't loose next game in Donetsk. We have our last game at home against Sporting and Donezk has to visit Camp Nou. And we hope, Barca isn't giving too many games away easily.
The best thing happened to us after the game:
We catched a taxi, entered and the driver congratulated us for the result. He opened his jacket and said "watch this" and it was a Real Madrid T-Shirt. Of course we had nice conversation with him about Barca, Real and football. We told him we'd like to go to Ramblas to eat something and he said he would bring us to a restaurant of his family at the port. So we went there, good restaurant and had a wonderful beef steak. As it was already 1am, we thought about leaving but the waiter came to us and said: "you want to see player?" Of course, which player? "Basilea, all team".
Yes of course, we thought he is nuts. Our team would not go after a game to eat at 2 am dinner. But we were wrong, after 30 minutes the guys showed up and as there were only about 10 supporters of FC Basel in the restaurant we shake hands with the guys and congratuled to the great result.
The next day we were running Rambla up and down, had paella and huge tapas. Just fine, sunshine, warm and a good result. What else you need? In the evening we got back to the airport and travelled home. Very happy.
That's football, isn't it? I love these emotions.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
A Basel fan in Barcelona: That's Football!
Hleb (2): "I miss Cesc a lot"
Barcelona player Alexander Hleb gave an interview to Catalan sports paper Sport.
(you can read the first part of this interview here)
Santander player Pinillos gave you a though welcome to the Spanish league. How did you feel about that injury?
Sometimes football in Spain is played too dirty. In England, they play hard, but fair. They go for the ball. In Spain, you have defenders who are always looking for your knee or your ankles. That's one of the things that surprised me most about Spanish football. Those tackles from behind just aren't acceptable. I wasn't expecting this.
The fans are surprised about the great stat of the season. You are too?
Not at all. This is Barcelona and we play how it is understood Barcelona should play. Barça is Barça, please. You don't have to lower the standard. The way we're playing right now is the minimum people can ask from us. This squad is made to win everything and technically the team is very good. We're going to come out there trying to win every game. What is happening seems very normal to me.
How does it feel to sit on the bench?
I'm not used to it, but it's normal. Partly because I have been injured and on the other hand because I cannot arrive here and say to the coach "Hey you, you have to play me and put the others on the bench because I'm great". All players are great here.
What do you think about the level of the Spanish league?
Well, if you see we're winning every game with 5-0, it could seem as if the level is quite low, but Atlético Madrid, against whom we scored six times, played very good against Liverpool, Villareal is going head-to-head with Manchester United and Madrid is a great team.
Cesc has said that he feels an oldie at Arsenal and that he misses you...
Arsenal has a fantastic team, although I understand what he's saying. I also miss him a lot because he was my best friend, both on the pitch, where we understood each other very good, as off the pitch. Together with Barcelona, Arsenal plays the best football.
If they don't win anything this season, Cesc maybe will get tired of losing and he could come to Barça...
Are you sure?
I'm not. Are you?
No. I'm talking a lot with Cesc, but not about this. He has a good contract and I don't think they want to sell him.
You are recognizing the Henry you played with at Arsenal?
Of course! He's a great guy, a good person and on the pitch he's as direct and straight as in his personal life.
This was the second and last part of this interview.
You can read the first part here:
Hleb (1): "I still need some more time to adapt"
Barcelona following Milan loan out Gourcuff
Italian football site Fiorentinanews claims that Barcelona is one of the clubs that are closely following Bordeaux attacking midfielder and French international Yoann Gourcuff (22).
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