Barcelona celebrate Messi's first goal

A visit to Barcelona last weekend happily coincided with a Barcelona home match so I visited Camp Nou for the first time. What a stadium – I’ve been to Old Trafford several times and thought that was big but the 98,000 seater Camp Nou is vast. Up in the third tier you’d need binoculars though! No such problems for me – I had a fantastic seat in just the second row.

The opponents – Numancia – were languishing well down the table so I was hopeful for some goals. I was sadly disapointed in the first half which ended goaless but the second half more than made up for it with 5 goals and Barcelona winning 4-1. Messi was superb, scoring two, hitting the bar and deserved a hatrick. He was patrolling the wing right in front of me and the space Numancia gave him was criminal. Every time he got the ball he looked dangerous. Henry started and had an OK game but he doesn’t seem to have the touch he did in his heyday at Arsenal.

At Camp Nou