A handful of us left Madrid after touring the Santiago Baernabeu Stadium and flew to Barcelona for the home game at The Nou Camp on Saturday night.
The Bernabeu is a hugely impressive venue and some of the memorabilia on display is fabulous, massive amount of history with Real Madrid although as a keen Barcelona fan it wasn't over whelming to me personally especially since it was my 4th trip to the stadium.
On arrival in Barcelona, we made our way to Plaza Catalunya to collect our tickets and then headed to a bar next to Camp Nou? After eating and having a few drinks we made our way into the stadium and were seated in the lower tier just to the right of the dug outs as you face the main stand. The first thing that struck me was the lack of Spanish fans in this part of the ground, it certainly does seem to be more of a tourist attraction than a partisan Catalunyan crowd and that is evident in the atmosphere.....very subdued.
Zaragosa managed to contain the mighty Barcelona for all of 18 minutes when Pique nodded in a corner and it was clear from there it would result in Barclona's 7th straight home win this season. They have scored 30 times at home too which is no surprise considering the ease at which they punctured the Zaragoza defense, they appeared to be looking at containment rather than getting back into the game.
The football on display was truly magnificent at times and Messi really is un-playable for opposing teams, truly a magician with the ball and it was a joy to be there and see his magic first hand. My only surprise is that he only scored once although he pretty much had a hand in everything good Barca did.
Zaragosa substituted a couple of players at half time, including West Ham's Pablo Barrera, and looked much more likely to score in the opening exchanges. The left winger was creating opportunities down the left and causing Dani Alves a few problems but then Barca countered, Puyol scored and it was exhibition football from then on.
Let's hope for footballs sake that Milan pose a much more sterner challenge to the Champions of Europe on Wednesday when they meet.
All in all this was a fantastic game of football and a great way to spend a Saturday evening.
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