Barcelona vs. Liverpool: the best night of my life

By Emerald Gao
Written on February 22, 2007

I had to wake up at 4:30am and pretend to be a dumb American or a clueless Asian, I'm not sure which, but we were pretty far up in the queue, so it was worth it. I felt horrible because the ticket office had implemented some ridiculous UEFA policy to only sell to "followers of FC Barcelona," so the security officers didn't let anyone in who carried a British passport. It was pretty pathetic, because all of the real fans basically lost their place to, well, dumb Americans and clueless Asians.

But.

I did it. Lara and I were going to the Barcelona vs. Liverpool Champions League match. Our dream was coming true.

We found out that the players were staying at Port Olimpic, and since there are only a couple of five-star hotels there, we traipsed down, but when we arrived, they were just about to leave. Then we went to the stadium and found out that our seats were smack in the middle of the old man section, with maybe three other Liverpool fans there.

It was good that we got to the stadium early, since it turns out that my friend El Jefe got his ticket stolen in the mad crush of the Metro, and had to go home. Ye gods, I'm glad I hid my ticket inside my copy of Rousseau's Discourse on the Inequality of Man, since no Spaniard in their right mind would ever want to steal that book.

proof that I was there!

the view from our seats

Barcelona dominated pretty much every aspect of the game early on, and deservedly went ahead early on, through what I admit was a fantastic goal. Zambrotta's cross found Deco with no problem at the far post, and Riise was a bit slow to react after Agger missed the clearance. But man oh man, I'm ridiculously proud of the defense tonight, especially in the first half -- they held on, not very prettily, but they managed, and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

I thought Bellamy should have equalized with that header off Gerrard's free kick, but he made good on that a few minutes later. Lara and I went batty. (Later, after Riise scored the winner, we found that not all of the fans were so forgiving of incursions and celebrations and whatnot, because apparently we received death threats from the disgruntled fans in the row ahead of us. I'm not sure exactly what they said, but look, I stood in line for four hours for these tickets, I'll cheer however loudly I want.)

Four things I really appreciated: the team spirit going into the second half, the immense irony of the goalscorers, Victor Valdes being the biggest clown known to man, and the superhuman efforts of Momo Sissoko. The Barça fans levied all of their insults against him because he was virtually unstoppable in the midfield, which is fair play, but I was disappointed with the classless jeering when he went down injured.

I can't even describe what the atmosphere was like. Absolutely intense and sublime, with sound rising into air and settling around the stadium like a blanket. The Barça fans were loud, but we had a pretty good view of the official away section, which was like a beacon of light. They never stopped singing, and the bright red twirl of their scarves reminded me to breathe at times. Also, I sang YNWA along with them at the end of the match, which is a pretty big deal.

After the match, Lara and I stumbled upon the underground lair where the club coach was being kept, so we waited around for an hour or so just for a glimpse of the team. We didn't get to talk to them, but from the bus, Rafa smiled and waved at us, and I got this weird finger waggle from Agger that was indescribable.

So basically, tonight was ... I don't even know how else to put it. Mind-blowing? Incredible? THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE?

Back to article index