The disgraceful actions of Barça's banned hooligan element marred an otherwise excellent victory in the last ever away match against Espanyol within the city of Barcelona. The club with more chips than your average McDonald's, all sported on the shoulder and all against Barça, showed little ambition, little knowledge of how to arrange security at a top flight football game and next to no class in the aftermath of an eventful Catalan derbi.
Were it not for those thoughtful fellows from the Boixos Nois one Medina Cantalejo would have stolen all the headlines in the aftermath of the game. A man who is supposed to be one of Spain's best referees (the competition is slim) managed to bungle his way through 90 minutes pleasing nobody but himself until he contrived to award FCB a last gasp penalty for a debatable foul on Samuel Eto'o as the Cameroonian burst through on goal. The first half was only notable for Barça's complete dominance, Medina Cantalejo harshly sending off Nene of Espanyol and Medina Cantalejo allowing Espanyol's opener despite a blatant foul on Victor Valdes by the Perikos' king of gamesmanship Luis Garcia. The man from L'Hospitalet should still have done far better in dealing with the ball which Pique had scooped up in the air but his catch/tip over was impeded.
The 2nd half of El Derbi was when it got really interesting. The Boixos Nois started throwing flares at the Espanyol fans below and a few Perikos saw this as an excuse to invade the pitch. Medina, viewing this as a risk to the players' safety, stopped the game for around 8 minutes and on resumption Barça were soon level through a fortunate goal from Henry after his first touch went away from him but Kameni in the blanquiblau goal could only palm the ball against his own defender and the rebound dropped kindly for Thierry who gratefully bagged a rare goal in the blaugrana shirt. It was no more than Barça deserved after incessant pressure and plenty of chances. What came next will go down in folklore for both clubs, for differing reasons. With the TV channels and the fans unsure of how much time was left to be played the match ran on and on, according to La Sexta the match was in the 92nd minute when the 4th official raised the board to show 3 minutes of injury time. 2 minutes later and Samuel Etoo was released into the box by Leo Messi. Pareja lunged for the ball. Samu fell under the challenge. PENALTY! It looked like a stonewaller on the TV in real time but replays showed that Pareja had possibly got a slight touch of the ball before felling Etoo. No matter, Barça had the penalty and a chance to kick Espanyol out of Barcelona in style...they move to the nearby town of Cornella next season. Messi showed no remorse and coolly slotted the penalty to give Barça a famous win in the last derbi at the historic Montjuic stadium.
Post match reactions from Espanyol were hysterical. The perikos' neurotic president Daniel Sanchez Llibre was apoplectic with rage and proceeded to squeal about the league being "prostituted" and the referee arriving with the sole intention of screwing his football club. "Dani" forgets of course that Espanyol aren't important enough for anybody to think of screwing them but the Perikos think they're on a higher plane after recent success in the Copa del Rei and the UEFA Cup. Success, of course, in a relative sense. The Monday after the game saw rumours of Espanyol reporting Barça's victorious players to the police for having the audacity to celebrate the winning goal in front of the travelling fans. Espanyol intrepreted this as inciting the half dozen or so fans who threw flares to partake in that disgraceful act, despite the fact that the flares had already been thrown. This blog believes that those players had every right to celebrate in front of the 600 or so Cules who behaved themselves and enjoy a special moment in beating the local upstarts.
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Wednesday night was all about the man above. Let's be frank here, Barça were shocking for large parts of the game in Donetsk but the sheer class of Lionel Messi was enough to turn around the game for FCB. The winner was of high quality from a player who continues to stake his claim to the title of "best player in the world". This is not to be confused, as in the UK media, for the award for "most photogenic player in the world" which Cristiano "pay me more" Ronaldo owns. Shakhtar had, for much of the game, given an uncomfortable lesson to other less ambitious teams in how to get a result against Barça. The Ukranian side was well organised, physical and savvy in defence. Barça got out of jail thanks to a goalkeeping error and a superb combination between Iniesta dn Messi to secure a result which was ill-deserved. Against Atleti on Saturday the boys in Blaugrana will have to step it up considerably and Pep must almost certainly rethink his selections, specifically with regards to Keita & Yaya in the same midfield and a certain sulky, lazy Frenchman who is currently to be seen plodding about up front in FC Barcelona's No. 14 shirt. Unless Henry improves, in PUB blog's opinion he has no place in a Barça side. In Ukraine Henry's only contribution was ensuring that the far more valuable Samuel Eto'o had to play out of position which limited his effectiveness. Bojan and Pedro look better options than the expensive purchase from Arsenal right now and that should be a concern for all Barça fans.
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Saturday, 10pm Catalan time, sees a clash which is being billed as a battle between two of world footballs brightest young stars, both Argentinian, both billed as "the next Maradona" (who isn't?) and both absolutely breath taking on their day.
The blog is extremely envious of Atleti because El Kun is a brilliant player and one who would fill the left-hand slot of Barça's attacking trident to perfection. Atleti have traditionally been far more capable of getting results at Camp Nou than pretty much any team aside from Valencia and Saturday will be a stern test of Pep Guardiola's developing side. Cules should bear in mind that we are still in a somewhat transitional phase but PUB blog sees positive signs, in attack at least, that this side will come good in the end. At the time of writing we have strung together 5 wins in a row without ever hitting top gear, even when we were hitting 6 in Gijon. If Pep can settle on his best XI and play that side as much as possible then we have a fighting chance in all competitions this season but it's clear thus far that the Catalan hasn't yet quite decided on his ideal starting lineup and as a consequence performances aren't hitting the heights and in defence we look shakey. The priority must be deciding upon a regular CB partnership which will be Puyol +1 other. Until that happens the miscommunications and mistakes in defence will continue and if that isn't resolved soon it will impede the side's progress.
Despite these concerns PUB blog believes that onwards and upwards is Barça's destination in the short to medium term and we have every confidence in Pep and the team. A win tomorrow would certainly go a long way to allaying any lingering concerns.
As ever, ahead of all the weekend action which sees cules become perikos for 90 minutes on Sunday it's Visca el Barça i Visca la Penya!
Saturday, 10pm Catalan time, sees a clash which is being billed as a battle between two of world footballs brightest young stars, both Argentinian, both billed as "the next Maradona" (who isn't?) and both absolutely breath taking on their day.
The blog is extremely envious of Atleti because El Kun is a brilliant player and one who would fill the left-hand slot of Barça's attacking trident to perfection. Atleti have traditionally been far more capable of getting results at Camp Nou than pretty much any team aside from Valencia and Saturday will be a stern test of Pep Guardiola's developing side. Cules should bear in mind that we are still in a somewhat transitional phase but PUB blog sees positive signs, in attack at least, that this side will come good in the end. At the time of writing we have strung together 5 wins in a row without ever hitting top gear, even when we were hitting 6 in Gijon. If Pep can settle on his best XI and play that side as much as possible then we have a fighting chance in all competitions this season but it's clear thus far that the Catalan hasn't yet quite decided on his ideal starting lineup and as a consequence performances aren't hitting the heights and in defence we look shakey. The priority must be deciding upon a regular CB partnership which will be Puyol +1 other. Until that happens the miscommunications and mistakes in defence will continue and if that isn't resolved soon it will impede the side's progress.
Despite these concerns PUB blog believes that onwards and upwards is Barça's destination in the short to medium term and we have every confidence in Pep and the team. A win tomorrow would certainly go a long way to allaying any lingering concerns.
As ever, ahead of all the weekend action which sees cules become perikos for 90 minutes on Sunday it's Visca el Barça i Visca la Penya!
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