The Champions League night when all heaven broke loose at Camp Nou

Sceptical voices have been raised at the generosity of the refereeing, but none of the game’s most contentious incidents could be described as definitive miscarriages of justice, writes Liam Mackey.

Sat, 11 Mar, 2017 - 00:00

Liam Mackey

As a pretty cast-iron rule, I’ll take the visceral reality of live football over the televised variety any day – it’s one of the main reasons, after all, why the dear old League of Ireland still manages to hold its own in the face of saturation coverage of the world game on the box.

But I’m always prepared to make an exception, and Wednesday night, watching from the comfort of the sofa as Barcelona redefined the concept of fantasy football, was definitely one of those.

Was I not envious of those who were there? Well, yes, of course, but only up to a point.

Had I been in the Nou Camp, I would have been sitting in the press box armed with a laptop and wearing what passes for my professional game face: a twitchy demeanour replete with nail-biting, lip-chewing and the occasional spasm of agonised horror when:

(a) I discover that I’ve left my glasses at home

(b) the wi-fi breaks down or

(c) the laptop keeps giving me electric shocks. (The latter actually happened two weeks ago in Oriel Park – remind me to tell you about it when the tingling in my fingers fades and I stop being able to walk through walls).

The point is that, no matter how sensational the match, if you’re watching it in work mode, your experience is going to be wholly different to that of the civilian at the same game.

A case in point, which has been much referenced in the aftermath of Barca’s staggering victory over PSG, was the 2005 Champions League Final when Liverpool came back from the dead to beat AC Milan.

I might just have happened to mention once or twice in these pages before that I was in Istanbul on that famous night, and also that, having had to scrap the 500 or so words I’d carefully crafted when Milan were three to the good and cruising to what seemed an inevitable and, indeed, embarrassingly one-sided victory, I ended up frantically rewriting a 1,000-word report even as the penalty shoot-out was still proceeding, the power on the laptop dwindled to near zero, the phones went down, the clock passed midnight in Turkey and the original deadline back in Cork came and went.

‘The Miracle Of Istanbul? For me, it was that there wasn’t an ugly blank space in the paper next day and a polite note from the Commander-in-Chief wishing me well in my future career.

This time last night, THIS happened....
🔊 Turn up the speakers 🔊
🔵🔴 #WeDidIt pic.twitter.com/xWgOTkwooa
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 9, 2017

Which is to say that the thrill of being there really only came with recollection in tranquility: as the ineffable drama was unfolding in real time, the experience was, from a purely professional point of view, something more to be endured than enjoyed.

So one of my first thoughts when it was all over in the Nou Camp on Wednesday was profound sympathy with my colleagues in the press box in Barcelona, especially those charged with, as we say in the trade, ‘filing on the whistle’.

Because while they would have spent the final minutes of the game in a condition of nerve-shredding suspended animation – having already deleted most of their earlier copy and knowing they might shortly have to put something indescribable into words at breakneck speed – I had been able to indulge in the rare luxury, as Barca pressed for a last-gasp winner, of reverting to a state of pure demented fandom, which basically involved me standing up and repeatedly roaring ‘Get it in the bleedin’ box!’ at the little men on the screen.

Fortunately, Neymar ignored me. Spurning the temptation to return a PSG clearance first time, he opted to jink inside onto his left foot and clip a glorious Messi-like pass over the massed defence to be met by Sergi Roberto who, at full stretch, brilliantly volleyed to the roof of the net.

At which point, all heaven broke loose in the Nou Camp - and further afield. On BT Sport, they showed presenter Gary Lineker and pundits Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen erupting in joyous disbelief, although the latter’s spontaneous lap of the studio will surely have been met with raised eyebrows in his former stomping ground of Madrid.

Afterwards, a sheepish Lineker observed that the bonkers reaction of the ex-pros had probably been embarrassing. Not a bit of it.

A large part of the magic Barcelona created on Wednesday was that, outside of Paris and, yes, probably Madrid, it pretty much turned all of us – superstars, managers, players, pundits, hacks and supporters – back into little kids, happily berserk at the wonder of it all.

(Apart, obviously and comically, from Sky Sports News, whose lead story at the top of the hour was that, um, Man City had been held scoreless by Stoke).

Sceptical voices have been raised at the generosity of the refereeing in the Nou Camp, from Barca’s two penalty claims to the moment when Mascherano’s tackle prevented Di Maria from getting on target a shot which might really have ended it all.

But, while I would accept that the penalty decisions were at the soft end of the spectrum, none of the game’s most contentious incidents could be described as definitive miscarriages of justice.

Across all platforms, as they say, there have been arguments for and against the perception that Suarez dived to win the second penalty. He could certainly have stayed on his feet but by getting an arm across him wasn’t Marquinhos consciously trying to prevent him taking control of the ball?

My own feeling is that, in the overall context of what Barcelona pulled off on Wednesday, putting excessive focus on that incident is a bit like complaining about a tear in the wrapping on your Christmas present.

In any case, given they were four-nil up from the first leg and still three to the good with only a couple of minutes of normal time remaining, PSG are really in no position to claim ‘we wuz robbed’.

If they are in the mood to apportion blame for their improbable defeat, they will have to first look in the mirror and admit that their conservative approach, laced with awful defensive jitters, simply played into the home side’s hands.

But the biggest reason one of the most incredible comebacks in football history came to pass is that Barcelona never let up and never let their heads drop. This was a victory born of collective spirit and resilience, with Neymar the one who supplied the game-changing wow factor that was otherwise uncharacteristically absent from his team’s performance.

On a night when, his emphatic penalty apart, Messi was nowhere near his explosive best, it was the Brazilian who took it upon himself to lead by example, first with a sublime free-kick, then a nerveless penalty of his own and, finally, that moment of sheer class and composure to set up the breathtaking winner, a goal which was the only one you could honestly say Barcelona created from quality play.

On RTÉ, Richie Sadlier observed that it had not been “a vintage” Barca performance, something which to the uninitiated seeing a 6-1 scoreline and an historic 6-5 aggregate victory, must have sounded pretty absurd.

But he was absolutely right. This Barcelona are not the Barcelona which, in the Champions League final at Wembley in 2011, played Man United off the park in what was the most complete and effervescent display of football I’ve ever witnessed in the flesh. (Did I possibly mention before that I was there?)

I have real doubts that Barcelona will go on to repeat that feat this season but that’s a matter for the days and weeks to come. It’s more than enough for now that, on Wednesday in the Nou Camp, they gave all of football, all of sport, a moment and a night for the ages.