Visit to the Camp Nou

One of the highlights of my trip to Barcelona has to be the vist to Camp Nou for the Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid game. I got my ticket through the Barcelona FC website and I must say I got quite a decent seat in one of the corners on the second tier second row from the front. After dinner that night I did walk past one of the official Barcelona FC store and you can actually get tickets from there but I think they were all on the top tier so visibility would be quite low in a 100,000 seat stadium.

I got there pretty early because I wanted to take a few photos but at the same time, I didn't realise how quickly and easily you can get to the stadium. Although it wasn't far from the city centre, my experience of getting to a game in London kind of made me think I should try to get there in advance. Well how wrong was I, I got to the game in less than 30 minutes and the gate wasn't even open so I had to stand outside with the crowd for a while. With a 10pm kick off, the gate only opened at 9pm and when it opened I made my way into an empty stadium when half the lights weren't even on yet so I spent some time looking around a bit.

After a while, the players came out to warm up. It was interesting to see the difference the relationship is between the players and the fans. When the players came out, the people chanted the player's names and the players would wave back to the crowd. I don't think I have seen that in England.

When the game finally started, it was action packed from the start. Mr Henry didn't have a great game but in the first 2 minutes, he turned his marker and took a shot that came off the crossbar. It didn't take Barca long though to get on the scoreboard when new boy Ibrahimovic flicked the ball past the keeper. No wonder why they have a massive billboard with his face on it in the middle of the city. They made it 4-0 after 42 minutes and the visitor did pull one back after a stupid mistake by no 16 Sergio Busquets. With each goal, the fans chanted the goal scorer's name and you can understand and almost feel the passion the fans and players have for the club and the game.

The pace of the game dropped a little in the second half and although Barca did come close a few times it was the visitor who got on the scoresheet with Diego Forlan getting a late goal. It wasn't done though as Messi, who was by far the best player on the pitch made it 5-2 in injury time.

It was an awesome experience and if you love football, you should try to see a game if you visit Barcelona.

Score: 5-2
Best Player: Lionel Messi
Worse Player: Sergio Busquets, seriously, this guy made so many mistakes
Funny moment: I notice the away fans were sat at the top of the stadium where no one can hear them
Ugly moment: Dani Alves' goal celebration