Barcelona: The Nou Camp and MIni Estadi

Last weekend me and Pere spent a glorious 4 hours basking in the glory of two wins from both Barcelona football teams - an impressive display by both teams with Messi's spectacular 4 goals really showcasing his prowess infront of the net. The man just has that extra flair which lifts him into the realm of the great; as a spectator you can't help getting lost in his intricate foot-play and every time he's on the ball the whole stadium is on tenterhooks - the man embodies action. Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself; first me and Pere headed to the 15,000 seater Mini Estadi to see the young guns clash with their Castillian rivals, Real Madrid Castilla. Well for a small stadium the atmosphere is buzzing; behind the keeper on the other side of the pitch to us there was the hardcore supporters, whom never ceased in letting their voices be heard. Disconcertingly every now and then a sound like a gun went off from this area and Pere moaned in disgust, exclaiming "not like this", I enquired what the sound was and more disconcertingly he didn't seem to know!

Well the game was a hotly contested affair, Barca B slightly edging Castilla on the possession front and with this they took the first goal at about 30mins in. Pere was telling me how the tactics and formation that the first team uses is implemented in every Barcelona team, so when the youth players who are good enough get their outing in the first team, they already have experience within the system. This ingenious idea has been with the club since Cruyff's heady management days - which Pere described as the dream team - and they've never deviated since the innovation was introduced.

Well Real Madrid hit back with a nice move; the midfielder's played the ball around swiftly and found their winger in space, just outside the penalty area, and he unleashed fire and brimstone out of nowhere and the Madrid fans made themselves heard for the first time. At this level though, the rivalry doesn't seem to be taken too seriously, as a man just a few seats away from us stood up and cheered when the Castillians scored, and those closest to him just smiled and waved him down nonchalantly. Well within five mins Barca got handed a fair penalty and with that won the game.

Next, we headed down through the packed streets and headed to the Nou Camp, just a 2min walk away. On the way I was singled out by a couple of reporters and gave a short 2min interview on why I loved Barcelona's football team, so for the avid youtube fans out there hunt me down and find the clip! I'm guessing it was maybe some middle eastern channel from the look of the cameraman and his crew.
So onto Barcelona vs Osasuna - we had managed to get a free ticket from Pere's uncle whose wife didn't fancy the outing as it was a tad cold, so we went half's on another ticket, 22 euros each, which isn't too bad.
Well I felt a real rush approaching the pitch as my excitement went into overdrive, but, after sitting down, I felt the atmosphere was somewhat subdued. It may have been that as it was an earlier kick-off than usual, there were many families present or it may have been the raucous crowds at the Mini Estadi left me expecting more, but either way the atmosphere was more static than I expected. Pere informed me that Barca had banned all hooligans which may be the answer of course.
The football was anything but static however, as Messi burst forward from Xavi's pinpoint passes time and time again, and he deftly put away 2 goals that first half - the pick of the two being when he skipped past the keeper by feigning a shot with Osasuna's no.1 falling for the bait and then calmly rolled the ball past the line. Pedro added another for a 3-1 scoreline at half-time which also including a red card for an Osasuna defender, which lead the game to being a foregone conclusion. Two more goals in the second half for Messi lent the leaders an easy win in the end. So, the game was a greatly enjoyable and the day was rounded off nicely when Leeds secured a win against Tottenham. Anyway, now for the pictures;