Its rare to recall a football game in which your team’s defeat doesn’t leave you with a bitter after-taste.
But few Barca supporters looked dejected last night as they emerged into the Scottish rain after seeing their team lose 2-1 to Celtic in their Champion’s league tie. From earlier in the day Barca and Celtic supporters had been sharing pints, swapping travelers tales, previous match anecdotes, and shared good memories of a Swede. When the match was almost upon them , the 1,000 cules who had scraped their spare euros for the trip happily joinedin You Never Walk Alone-the anthem, if ever there was one, to community and respect.
Earlier in the day, Glasgow University had hosted a conference on the culture of FC Barcelona-its roots in the Catalan identity, its democratic values,its team ethos, its universality The audience, much of its Scots students, participated enthusiastically. A history of struggle and disputed nationhood have forged enduring bonds that contrast with the destructive rivalry that for years has characterised the Celtic/Rangers encounters.
There was more to yesterday’s match than a love-in however. Messi for one walked off without even a handshake- and I could understand why. Minutes earlier he has just reduced Barca’s deficit with a characteristically predatory finish.The result would have been very different had Barca translated their dominant play and passing into more successful shots at goal. But for the inspired saves and deflections of their goalkeeper Fraser Forster, things would certainly have turned out rather worse for Celtic. Goals by Jordi Alba and Alexis, and two more goals by Messi.
This was a game where, for long periods, Barca mesmerised, the individual skill of most of its players combining in a display of creative football that showed its main weakness in the defence of the goalpost against Celtic’s set pieces. In both halves, Celtic nonetheless absorbed wave after wave of Barcelona pressure. In terms of sheer resilience, it was a heroic performance by the home team, personified in Tony Watt,the Celtic teenage striker who snatched what proved the decisive goal seven minutes from time having exploited a rare mistake by Xavi Hernandez.
And when the game was over, Celtic’s coach Neil Lennon described his side’s victory as one of the greatest nights in the club’s recent history and the best moment in his professional career. It was good to be in on the celebrations, Neil-but you were lucky against a better team and to have a stadium in which fans chanted and sang their hearts out-win or lose.
