Many were pretty nervous about this, what with the state of the squad and the way the team's been doing lately... but once again, the boys came out and blew us all away when we were least expecting it. Will a time ever come when they'll stop doing that? Impossible.When a team comes out to such a pressured match against such big opponents, with several players sidelined including their two biggest stars, yet they manage to destroy the other lot, you know you're looking at a team that is truly great. A team of champions.
Those boys weren't nervous. They came out with surefire determination and dominated the entire match. The teamwork, the passing, the chances - everything was looking beautiful right from the start, and as we were left blinking in disbelief at Pique's goal in just the tenth minute, we could tell right then and there - our lads were going to rock them.
Pique's goal resulted from a corner - anyone notice how we are scoring more and more off set pieces lately? That hasn't really been one of Barca's strong points previously, and it's so awesome that we're mastering that now - along with everything else. What adds to the awesomeness is the fact that Pique is the one who scored it. Here you've got this man who is centerback and scores often enough for it to make him stand out. And more often than not in the big matches.
That first goal was soon followed up by a second, this time courtesy of Pedro. How awesome is this kid? We're never going to be afraid again when Messi is unvailable. No worries, we've got Pedro!
And, what was it - a match or two ago that we were saying Andres Iniesta would be much better off in midfield? Good to see Pep listened. The magic between that boy and Xavi was absolutely mind-blowing; Andres and Xavi were born to play together in midfield, no question about it. They're just something else. So beautiful to watch.
It was so wonderful to see how the team stepped up to the occasion, overcoming everything and giving their absolute best in this match. They controlled it all, and the Inter players barely had a whiff of the ball. They spent more time fouling our players than actually playing - we're half expecting the team's medics to announce a muscle tear or something around Dani's shins due to excessive bruising.
But what's new? When Barca come out and do their thing, taking command of the entire match, the other lot are left helpless and left with no other option than to resort to fouling our players to try and slow things down. It's sad, but it's nothing we haven't seen before.
The run of play was interrupted every so often because yet another of our boys was tripped or shoved or thumped to the ground, which is probably why we didn't score more than the two... that and a man named Julio Cesar, pretty much the only Inter player who really showed up. If not for him we'd have won by a much larger margin, that you can tie to.
But that doesn't matter. The important thing is that the boys stepped up and gave an awesome match and won it, reaffirming to the world just what this team is made of as well as putting Barca on top of the group. Qualification to the next round should be no trouble after this.
As a final note, we must say how happy we were at the sight of Samuel Eto'o on the Camp Nou among our players. The way he greeted and hugged them all, his attitude throughout the match, everything just had us loving him last night. And the ovation he recieved was too cute. Samu, we miss you.
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