Football wins 2-0

With the paella eaten and the 2005 Spanish Red almost finished it was time to settle down and watch the match of the weekend live from Barcelona.

For the first ten minutes of the match Real Madrid seemed intent on revisiting the infamous Barca-Athletic Bilbao match of 24th September 1983, the match where Goikoetxea tackled Maradona with such force from behind that the Argentine forward was out of football for three months. This time the little Argentine forward was Lionel Messi and it appeared that the sole intent of every Real Madrid player who could get near him was to scrape their studs down the players achilles - it wasn't pleasant to watch, and at some points was simply plain nasty.

Once Real Madrid stopped kicking everything in a blue and red shirt that moved, by Nathalie and my reckoning only Abidal and Victor Valdes weren't actually fouled, the match became one of those intriguing 'games of footballing chess' as the pundits like to call them. Real actually had the best chance of the first half when Drenthe broke through the home defence but found Valdes having one of his better nights.

Barcelona's two goals came in the last seven minutes, this after Samuel Etoo had missed the chance to give them the lead from the penalty spot after Michel Salgado had tried wrestling with Sergio Busquets just inside the box - unfortunately Etoo's penalty kick wasn't one of the best you will see and Casillas saved easily. It didn't take too long for the home side to edge in front, following a corner Carlos Puyol (a player who these matches mean more to than most) rose majestically for a corner and Etoo was two yards out and couldn't miss, just before the end a sublime pass from Thierry Henry found Lionel Messi just inside the penalty box and you knew he wasn't going to miss - despite the best efforts of Fabio Cannavaro who collided with the post as he tried to clear the ball. In the celebrations that followed Nathalie noticed that Bojan had the hood of his tracksuit/puffa jacket pulled over his head and couldn't free himself - who knows maybe he is still spinning around the Nou Camp as we speak.

Anyway it was a great result and one that means Barcelona will begin the New Year looking good on both the domestic and European fronts, this Friday's Champions League draw will make for interesting reading as I can't believe Arsenal and Chelsea will want to play them on current form.