Nine Catalan players in starting XI ensure Barça keep perfect new Camp Nou record

Barça may have gotten the win, but the second game of the New Camp Nou era still left unanswered questions and dissatisfaction among fans.

On the date of the 126th anniversary of the club, Barça fielded a starting XI featuring nine players born in Catalonia, something which, according to RAC1 journalist Oriol Jové, hasn’t happened since March 1959. 

But for more than an hour before kick-off outside the Camp Nou, thousands of fans were left waiting in queues, or barely able to navigate the grounds to reach the point to enter the stadium. 

The application for Barça members’ tickets crashed earlier in the day, forcing fans to queue up in person at service desks to be given a physical ticket. Eventually, according to numerous reports, the club allowed many fans with members’ cards to enter the stadium without their ticket printed or issued digitally, and were told to find any empty seat to sit in. 

Long into the game, with two of the game’s four goals already scored after eight minutes, streams of supporters were still entering the stadium and left to search for a place to sit. 

Videos posted on social media show long queues reaching far down the street, while others replied to the club’s official account online, calling them “liars” for saying the ticketing issue had been solved. 

 

Lacking spark

On the pitch, the blaugrana players left the dressing room still asleep. The defence failed to track the flight of a high ball and gave Alavés a cheap corner, from which they scored after more hesitant defending from the home side. All in the first minute of the game. 

Yet, Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, and Olmo had too much quality for their Basque opponents, and the four combined for Barça’s first two goals to give the Catalans the lead 26 minutes in. Olmo added a third in injury time as Alavés pushed for an equaliser that didn’t seem to be coming. 

From there, the blaugrana had too much quality on the ball to allow Alavés back into the game, although Joan García was forced into making one brilliant save from a rare breakaway from the visitors. 

Yamal provided plenty of rapid turns of direction and drops of the hip to draw out all sorts of expressions of adoration from the stands. Saturday was his first grand recital in the club’s new home, and it will also be remembered as the day the new Barça idol scored his first goal in the Camp Nou. 

Beyond the goals, however, the home side lacked the spark and electricity that defined their play last season. The return of Raphinha will give Hansi Flick’s pressing tactics a much-needed boost, as the wiry Brazilian is clearly the most important cog in this key element of Barcelona’s style of play. 

Atmosphere

Despite this being only the second game back in the Camp Nou, and a day of celebration for the club’s anniversary, the matchday atmosphere is a question the club hierarchy seriously has to consider. 

The most common chants heard throughout the game were ‘Volem la grada d’animació’ – ‘We want the singing section’ – as well as ‘Barça sí, Laporta no’, likely stemming from the ticketing issue experienced at the start of the day. 

It’s now been almost exactly a year since Barcelona played their first home game without their most vocal supporters allowed into the stadium, owing to a dispute between the singing section groups and the club over fines Barça received the season before last.

A year on, this standoff remains bad for all parties. From the stands, it was easy to hear the players talking to each other on the pitch for most of the game, due to the silence that took over the stadium for long spells. 

Some weeks ago, at the open training session in the Camp Nou attended by more than 20,000 fans, club president Joan Laporta spoke to the media about his intentions to create a new singing section featuring mostly younger supporters keen to provide an atmosphere. At this point, mediation with the ‘grada d’animació’ that want to take up their place and create a soundtrack to the game is surely badly needed.