Third time lucky as I head to the Camp Nou?

I can’t write today about anything that has happened in the football world over the past couple of days because I have been away from my computer. I have not been in England at all and indeed, as you are reading this, I am in the wonderful city of Barcelona.

I’m away with a couple of friends, so if you are reading this in the morning I am probably feeling pretty awful and hung over and if you are reading this after lunch, I am probably completely drunk. That is what we English are like when we go abroad as I’m sure you know!

One of the things we are doing whilst we are in Barcelona is going to tonight’s game between Barcelona and Racing Santander at the Camp Nou. I don’t think it would be possible for me to be more excited!

I have only seen one other game live in La Liga when I went with one of my sons to see Real Madrid take on Atletico Madrid at the Bernabau. Despite that game being a wonderful experience and being absolutely knocked out by the sight of the Bernabau, the game was a dull, drab and excruciatingly boring 0-0 draw. I’m hoping for better tonight!

I have brought some signing on forms for Wilton Town, the team I coach, in case we see any players in the game who we like the look of and might try to persuade to come to England to play in the Wiltshire League division two. I wonder if I could get the committee of the club to pay for the tickets on the basis that I am on a scouting trip!

I’ve heard that Barcelona have got one or two decent players but I’m not sure they’d be good enough to force their way into the first team at Wilton! I’ll see when we watch them play.

Last year, the same group of friends went on a short trip to Alicante. We had tickets to watch Barcelona play at Levante. The game was originally on the Sunday night but must have been changed because of the television. Unfortunately nobody told us and we found out when the game came on the television in the bar we were in in Alicante on the Saturday evening!

We won’t be stupid enough to make the same mistake again this year. Will we? In fact, if any group of people could be stupid enough it would be us!

I have been looking forward to the game since we got the tickets a few weeks ago. It will be great to be in the Camp Nou and watch the world famous Barcelona side play. I have watched Manchester United at Old Trafford, Real Madrid at the Bernabau and Watford at Vicarage Road. It will be fascinating to compare the teams, atmosphere and grounds of those four great clubs.

During the coming week I will write about my experiences before, during and after the game and share with you what I find. I just hope we don’t turn up at the ground on the wrong night!

In Andy Greeves’ excellent preview of the La Liga season on this site a short while ago he predicted that Barcelona would win the title this season and that Racing Santander would achieve mid-table respectability.

Barcelona were hurt by their eighteen point deficit to Real Madrid last year and have bought in several new faces. Racing had a great finish last season in sixth place, but they have lost their manager and one or two players and look considerably less strong this time around.

The game should really be a mismatch but things very rarely work out like that.

In their first games before the international break, Racing Santander earned a creditable 1-1 draw at home to Sevilla whereas Barcelona inexplicably lost 1-0 at newly promoted C.D. Numancia. Racing were completely outplayed by their visitors who had more than twice as many attempts on goal and over 60% of the possession, but Racing showed great character to come away with a point. At Numancia, Barcelona had plenty of chances but couldn’t take any of them.

After that disastrous start, Pep Guardiola will be desperate for his team to produce a performance in front of their home fans.

I hope they do and I hope that Racing produce the performance of their lives. A 5-4 scoreline would be ideal as I try to make up for a 0-0 draw and missing the game all together on my previous trips to the country!