Post-Match Buzz: Extended Celebration

We all saw the players celebrating on the Mestalla after the match, but just like when they'd qualified, the party continued after that in the dressing room and beyond...

Gerard Pique, Xavi Hernandez, and Victor Valdes led the celebrations, and things were looking pretty wild as various people who came to greet and congratulate the players, including former Generalitat president Pasqual Maragall, Barca president Joan Laporta and his vice Rafael Yuste, as well as the president of the Catalan Parliament, Ernest Benach, were met by the shouts of "Champions, champions!" before being urged to stay and join the party.

Apparently Eidur Gidjohnsen was the only player not much in the mood to celebrate, and had to be coaxed by his teammates to join in... looks like he's still feeling grim about not getting many minutes this season, and remains set on leaving the club...

Anyway, back to the party. The players had their cell phones on hand and and took photos of the cup, the celebrating and all... though we're told that Dani Alves was so tired, he simply donned a Santa Clause hat and went to sleep.
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Celebrations wore on and Sergio Busquets got up on the coach with a microphone to 'entertain' the crowd, but he was tackled by Catalan writer/humorist Jordi Evole who was present. Jordi soon got the mic from him and gave his own show, complete with songs and shouts of all sorts, and was greatly recieved by players and all.

After dodging through a sea of fans to get to the hotel, with Pique screaming "Barca, Barca!" through the mixing zone, the players had a somewhat quiet and private celebration dinner before kicking off the celebrations again, partying till four in the morning. Everyone was left so tired, that the flight back to Barcelona the next day was contrastingly quiet; no shouts, no singing, Pique didn't even play DJ as he usually does.

Arriving in Barcelona, the players posed with the cup at the foot of the plane for a moment for press shots, then continued on to the bus to start the ride back to Camp Nou, accompanied by fans on motorcycles.

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The team was greeted by thousands of fans, albiet slightly disappointed to find the bus with tinted windows that prevented them from seeing the players, after it was believed that the boys would be showing up in an open-top bus. However, the team came out again to pose with the cup, and though security kept the fans off of them, goalkeeper Pinto took the cup from Captain Puyol and went in among the fans to let them touch the trophy.

The cup is already in the trophy room at Camp Nou, and today it's back to training for the boys, as the team takes up preparation for securing the liga title this weekend.

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