Barcelona 3 - 1 Arsenal

Ohhhh the sounds of silence...

“This is the best team of our generation”. These were the words of a dear friend this afternoon as the two of us engaged in a critique of yesterday’s game at the Camp Nou, who I hasten to add is an Arsenal fan. The fact is that the world is fast running out of superlatives to describe this particular collection of Barcelona players, and I emphasise the term ‘players’ because for all their achievements over the last two seasons and there have been an awful lot of them. The greatest and most commendable without a shadow of a doubt is not displayed in the illustrious trophy room in the Camp Nou, which for those who are unaware runs the entire length of the main stand. But more fittingly is displayed in the conduct and humility of each and every player who dons the claret and blue jersey. These are individuals who despite the media circus that follows the modern footballer, seem not consider themselves superstars let alone stars for that matter, but pure and simple 'jugadores' bound by their pledge to their faithful supporters, which according to facebook estimate over 10,000,000.

Rumour has it that in the youth teams at Barcelona, parents of young aspiring players are discouraged from criticising their performances and instead are encouraged to simply ask them “did you have fun”. And it is this very same mentality that has been drilled into each player, “go out enjoy yourselves, play the way you know and the result will take care of itself”, which results in the philosophy that is cemented in the Barcelona school of thought. A philosophy which is unmatched by any other top European team and which has shown time and time again to be the crucial difference on the pitch, no matter what the situation is never, never, never abandon your philosophy even it is in the 93^rd minute of a Champions League semi-final. Arsenal for their sins seemed to have abandoned it the moment Arshavin made the net ripple in North London.

The game started rather cagily and as per Guardiola’s pre match forecast it was to be concentrated in the midfield. Soon enough though, Barcelona was conducting the pace as Xavi and Iniesta enforced themselves on proceedings and had Arsenal on the back foot immediately. Busquets and Mascherano were also linking up well and finding plenty of space to make themselves available as the game moved from midfield and into the Arsenal half. The first real test for Szczesny came in the 18^th minute, from a Dani Alves freekick and despite a strong save, resulted in a finger injury forcing Wenger to make an early substitution as he brought on Almunia. The pace settled down somewhat and it looked as though Arsenal had weathered the early storm. And just as they felt they were finding some rhythm Barcelona’s little genius burst into life on the edge of the Arsenal area and was brought tumbling down by Djorou for what looked like a certain penalty only for the referee to waive play on.

Barcelona’s possession of the ball was as standard, giving nothing away and quickly winning the ball back when they did not have it. But despite their staggering dominance, they were lacking a spark in front of goal. Adriano came closest on 36 minutes after a good run, latching onto the ball and blasting it against Almunia’s near post with a thunderous left foot drive. It looked at this stage that we could go into half time goalless, but as half time crept in a clever ball from Iniesta found Messi who beat the offside and in a twinkle of an eye casually chipped the ball over the oncoming Almunia before blasting it into the net, 1-0 Barcelona game on. 

Emerging from halftime the equation now changed Arsenal had no choice but to take the game to Barcelona. The game opened up as Arsenal tried to push forward and regain the advantage and when a 53^rd minute corner from Nasri was misjudged by Busquets resulting in an own goal Arsenal had found an unlikely lifeline.

Up until this point the Gunners had not threatened Valdes all night but now found themselves with one foot back in the quarterfinals. But there was to be more drama, Van Persie continued to play on despite the referee blowing for offside and the no nonsense refree brandished a second yellow card to the Dutchman and gave him his marching orders but not without much protest from the player and the Arsenal dugout. It is quite usual for teams to play better when they are down to 10 men and the controversial nature of the dismissal should have warranted a rejuvenated Arsenal effort, but that was not to be the case and instead Arsenal simply capitulated.

Barcelona’s midfield had enjoyed astonishing possession of the ball up until this point in the game to the tune of 75%, so you can imagine what ensued now that they had the extra man. Arsenal had their Spanish substitute goalkeeper to thank for keeping them in the game for as long as he did.

Eventually, however Barcelona’s persistence converted itself into a goal. Iniesta, Villa and Xavi passed the ball exquisitely at close range and completed the move with a delightful finish as Xavi found the back of the net on the 69^th minute. The goal had been coming for some time.

As the score line stood we were going into extra time, but the Catalans wanted to send a message to Europe, and so they did when Pedro was brought down in the penalty area shortly after, up stepped Messi to score his eighth goal of the campaign and take his total in the champions league competition to an incredible 33 goals at the ripe old age of 23. Cue the celebrations? Not quite yet, Arsenal looked tired and drained but as the score line stood they only needed to score one more goal to go through on the away goal rule, and when substitute Bendtner found himself with only Valdes to beat on the 87^th minute the Camp Nou felt silent. But the Barcelona faithful were soon at ease as a perfectly timed tackle from Mascherano brought an end to venture. Cue celebrations? Oh yes!

Barcelona winger Dani Alves summed up the performance and the tie in his post match comments, “I didn’t think qualification was in danger. Before the break, we had the game under control. They wanted to defend the result. We have our philosophy and we’ll die with it”.

Long live the philosophy! And long live Barca!