The Beautiful Game

From the moment I secured my ticket and entered the stadium the smell of barbecued meat, frankfurters, patatas fritas and success wafted up to the heavens where I would be fortunate enough to witness sport at its best. Not even the great Juan Belmonte could have taunted and tormented his opponent with such skill, indeed as the 4th goal hit the back of the net that I was sitting above, the contest was well over with Massi the genius/the matador against Mrs Jones pantomime cow in red and white shirts. In truth Barca should have been 6 up at half time with a blatant penalty on Massi turned down by the referee to the disgust of the fans. The second half was a procession of skill without the killer instinct of the 1st half.

A truly memorable night and my only question would be why does one of the greatest stadiums in the world shelter circa 327 fans out of 94000 from the rain. The sight of circa 20000 umbrellas up was bizarre, whilst the rest of us kept our heads down for the 10 minute shower.

Thank you Barcelona for a night I'll never forget and I cannot see anyone capable of stopping Messrs Henry, Messi, Eto'o, Puyol in this kind of form.

RjL