Barcelona – Camp Nou

Just wanted to say that I booked this trip through Indulge Football, who were absolutely brilliant. Arranged everything for us at a very reasonable price, would recommend to anyone wanting to do a similar trip to this one! https://indulgefootball.com/#/

Introduction to the European Tour

This section of my blog will be all about my goal to go to every major stadium around Europe. As a kid I always dreamt of seeing all the best players in the world play live, in the most prestigious stadiums in the world. We aim to go to home games of Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Inter or AC Milan and Atletico Madrid as we believe these are some of the most elite clubs with history, along with incredible stadiums and atmospheres. So this time last year, myself, my Brother, my Dad and Grandad decided to make it possible, starting with Barcelona at the Camp Nou. It was such a tough decision to decide where to start, but it boiled down to which player we wanted to see play live the most. Everyone’s first choice was the magician Leo Messi. After 10 months of waiting, last weekend we finally got to watch Barcelona vs Granada and the overall experience didn’t disappoint. I will break down our time in Barcelona into the stadium tour, match report of the game and then followed by rating the overall experience out of 10 for atmosphere, facilities, quality of game.

Stadium Tour

We arrived early on Saturday morning and didn’t waste any time in booking a stadium tour. We all thought that it would be interesting to see the stadium when it’s empty then compare it to when it’s full for the match, this combined with seeing the impressive trophy rooms Barcelona hold meant it was a no brainer. As a result we booked a ticket on the Metro and headed straight over to the stadium.

Overall, this was a great experience and even though the Camp Nou is slightly run down, in my opinion it added to the aura of this spectacular structure. Taking them first steps up to see the hallowed turf is a moment which will live with me forever, the sun was beaming down onto the pitch making our view from the stands incredible. It definitely had a “wow” factor. Throughout the tour, it was so clear to see why Barcelona win so many home games, as this place looked like a fortress. The way it’s set out gives it the illusion of even more fans than the 99,354 capacity, due to it being so steep, and as a result intimidates opposition players, causing them to be swallowed up if they aren’t on top of their game. If you are ever in Barcelona I would highly recommend the tour as in the initial part before you see the pitch you are allowed to go around their museum, which gives you a very good feel for the size and magnitude of the club, as their trophy cabinets seemed to go on forever! All in all, we spent about an hour and a half doing the whole thing, which was well worth it, only making us even more excited for the game the next night.

Match Report: Barcelona vs Granada

The Spanish giants were under new management for their game against 10th place Granada, with Quique Setien taking the reins from Ernesto Valverde, who was sacked while sitting 1st place in La Liga. Another example of the ridiculously high standards in which Barcelona pride themselves on, while reminding new head coach that nothing but perfection will do in this cut throat role.

The game started as it meant to go on, with Barcelona dominating in every aspect, pinning back Granada to within an inch of their own penalty area. There was no way out for the boys in white, with Messi dropping into the 10 regularly to pick up the ball and drive at their defence, causing major problems. In the 15th minute, a cut back from Jordi Alba was met on the half volley by Vidal, who’s effort was relatively close, just flying over the bar. Perhaps he should have done better. The theme of defence vs attack continued, however Barcelona were struggling to break them down, as a result of some extreme work rate from the mid tabled side. The next notable chance was from young winger Ansu Fati who forced a smart save from the opposition keeper with Messi unable to latch onto the rebound. Towards the end of the half, Rakatic released Alba down the left, cutting the ball back to Messi as he always seems to do who fired into the side netting just before the break. It finished 0-0 at halftime.

In the second 45 minutes, Barcelona were much better, passing the ball quicker with more movement in order to open up spaces in the Granada defence. Shortly after kick off, Messi found himself with some space on the edge of the box in which he fired low towards the keepers right hand side, narrowly missing. The momentum appeared to be going towards Blaugrana, but the crowd were quickly reminded that it weren’t just one team in the game, as a rare venture into an attacking position for Granada lead to an excellent shot which cannoned of the post, easily beating the out stretched Ter Stegen. It was a warning sign for the home team, that the opposition weren’t going to just lie down. Eventually, in the 69th minute, after numerous fouls German Sanchez was sent off for a second yellow card offence, this was the turning point in the match as it allowed much more space when Barcelona came forward. Young playmaker Puig came on and made a massive impact for the home side, which lead to the opener 5 minutes later, as a beautiful move starting and ending with the magician himself gave Barcelona the lead. Vidal played a lovely back heel into Messi who made no mistake with side footing it into the corner. After this, Barcelona wanted more, as with every attack they looked like scoring. Messi came close again shooting from range, however the keeper was equal to this effort. In the end, both sides knew the game was over with the home side keeping the ball to kill it off, leading to a 1-0 victory for Barcelona to see them go back top of La Liga.

Ratings of Overall Experience

Atmosphere: 7/10– Would have been higher, but it wasn’t a sell out due to it being a cold windy night in Barcelona. I think this affected the atmosphere a bit however the ultras were fantastic all game.

Facilities: 8.5/10- Unbelievable stadium which is so well designed, starting to look quite old now though. They have plans to build a new stadium so I’m glad I got to experience this one before it goes. All in all, excellent facilities and the fact it isn’t brand new only adds to it for me.

Quality of the game: 7/10– Even though it wasn’t a 5-0 thrashing like we hoped, there was still some amazing quality on show. World class players all over the pitch and to watch Messi play live was an honour, in my opinion the best player ever. Granada’s tactics didn’t help the game, however that was to be expected otherwise the score line would have been worse than 1-0 for them.

Overall experience: 9/10– It was a surreal experience, one that I will never forget. I throughly enjoyed every second of it and would highly recommend it to any football fan that is thinking about going!

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James Humphreys