Champions League - Huge crowd welcomes Barca

Eurosport - Fri, 29 May 08:13:00 2009

Treble-winners Barcelona finally met their match on the streets of their home city as up to a million fans flocked to welcome them home from their Champions League final triumph.

FOOTBALL Members of Barcelona football team wave to the crowd as they celebrate
their Champions League victory from the top of a bus along the
streets of Barcelona - 0

The Catalans have outplayed all comers to win La Liga, Copa del Rey and now the Champions League, but they struggled to make their way through the crowds to the Nou Camp to complete their celebrations.

Having beaten Manchester United 2-0 in Rome on Wednesday, the squad flew back to Barcelona on Thursday afternoon and it was coach Pep Guardiola and captain Carles Puyol who carried the European Cup down the steps from the plane.

They boarded an open-top bus and with the trophies propped up inside the front windscreen, set off for a journey that would take over three hours. A second bus drove behind pumping out music.

Spanish media reported that up to a million fans thronged the streets to greet them.

The players, who all wore blue shirts emblazoned with "Cup, League and Champions", danced, sang songs, waved flags and sprayed drinks over the fans.

The club threw open the doors of the Nou Camp and a capacity 98,000 crowd had to wait for over an hour past the scheduled arrival time for the team to make their entrance and kick off the evening's festivities.

After the final on Wednesday night, around 100,000 fans celebrated in the centre of Barcelona, but events turned ugly later on.

Local police told Spanish media they had detained 119 people mainly for public disorder offences and causing damage. Medical services dealt with injuries to 153 people, with 23 needing hospital treatment.

Reuters

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  1. they are talking about real and barca only but truth is­ this
    2000 deportivo won la liga and real at that time­ won CL
    2001 Valencia won and played CL final against­ bayern
    2002 valencia won again and real won CL AT this­ time too
    2003 real won in last match and 2nd was­ sosidad which in 2nd devision now
    2004 valencia won and­ won uefa cup too
    2005 and 2006 barca won and even won­ CL
    2007 3 teams get same points barca,real and sevilla­ but real won by games to each other
    2008 real won
    now­ barca
    but in england only manchister won 11 in last 21­ years
    see numbers talk louder than your voice you­ british arrogants

    From black, on Fri 29 May 1:55AM
  2. la liga have taken alot of steps on all i think uefa­ must make 6 teams to represent la liga
    why?
    because in­ last 18 years we won 6 times, barca 1991,2006,2009­ real.m 1998,2000,2002
    the italians 4 times, milan­ 1994,2003,2007 juventus 1997
    english 3 times,­ manchister 1999,2008, liverpool 2005
    germans twice,­ brusia dortmond 1996, bayern 2001
    this is just one­ reason follow the others
    in la liga there was 5 teams­ won the league in last 12­ years
    barca,valencia,deportivo,athletico & real­ while premier league ahahaha all time for last 20 years­
    aresenal,man united,arsenal,man united,arsenal till­ morinho make chelsea in
    the other thing is in premeir­ league is the table don't change from 1st to 4th,­ from begining season till the end
    but la liga you­ can't predict anything till last match and we see­ every year new team in champion league
    to know how even­ small team in la liga are better than big english teams­ just look at villareal they came from 2nd division in­ 2001 they play twice champions league in their history­ but once they reach semi and 2nd time 1/4 final
    final i­ heard manchister have the best diffence in england they­ keep clean net for 13 matches in row but the truth is­ not man u have good diffence truth is there is no good­ striker in english when they face good strikers against­ porto they were knocked hardly and deeply, they when­ they face barca
    eto almost smashed your best player of­ the season vidic ( do you know what did eto and henry­ said after the match"vidic and rio are christmas­ gift NOT diffence)

    From black, on Fri 29 May 1:32AM
  3. barcelona_mes_que_un_club, since 1984, 4 times only was­ la Ligua won by any other team than Real or Barcelona.­ in the same period EPL was won by 8 different teams.­ That cannot show that la Ligua is more­ ''interesting''. Yes, Barca and Real­ have been very strong, but not la Ligua itself. in the­ EPL, only Manchester United managed to win it 3 times­ in a row and they did this twice. Meanwhile, Barca won­ it 4 times in a row and Real won it staggering 5 times­ in a row. That can only be a boring championship to­ follow. Italian Serie had 8 teams winning it since 1984­ and Milan and Inter managed to win it 3 times in a row.­ so I also think Serie A is way better than La Ligua.

    From Half A Brain, on Fri 29 May 1:28AM
  4. I think that no one can question the victory of­ Barcelona...except people who are rotten sour­ grapes!.....I guess we all know where they come from!

    From marilacson, on Fri 29 May 1:23AM
  5. lol im not a chelsea fan, just thought that before the­ catalans get above them selves thinking that the­ premership is not as good as la liga they should­ remember that if the ref in the semi had went to spec­ savers they would have been put out , the ref in that­ match was as blind as a bat

    From alan, on Fri 29 May 1:12AM
  6. The reason I'm saying that La Liga is better than­ premiershit is because of a similar reason you english­ fans look at. You only look at the last 2-3 years of­ champions league, where spanish teams and italians had­ some trouble. Why don't you look at the facts and­ all the history of CL. In Spain, you have madrid with­ the most CL trophies, you have Barcelona with the most­ goals in CL, 851 goals, and madrid comes second with­ 850 goals, you also have spain leading with 12­ trophies, you also have raul the leading scorer in CL.­ Also the fact that you english fans don't face the­ facts and don't show respect for the opposing­ teams. You always talk about Barca not surviving in­ premiershit, well guess what, we knocked out chelsea,­ and we destroyed man u, the so called the permiershit­ champions. Also another fact, you again say that La­ Liga teams are so weak, than let me ask you, why the­ premiershit champions man u could not beat a 5 place La­ Liga team Villareal? I'm trying to prove a point­ here, don't just look at the last 2-3 years, and­ don't just look at 4 english teams, because they­ are the only tought teams in england, the rest suxk.­ It's almost guaranteed for arsenal, man u,­ liverpool, chelsea to get the top 4, where as in Spain­ you have seville, atletico madrid, villareal, valencia,­ real madrid, Barcelona and more fighting for top 4,­ because the teams in La Liga are a lot tougher, where­ as in england you only have top 4. Alos in 2002, we­ had a Spanish all finals, Valencia v Madrid, and you­ did not hear much of Spanish fans saying "oh we­ are the best because we have an all Spanish­ finals," like you english fans say. Also, the­ reason the top 4 teams in england are good teams, is­ because you have bilionares buying the clubs, and they­ have money to buy good players, where as in spain, you­ have members investing in clubs, and you have more home­ grown players. Also, the fact is, that the whole world­ knows that Barcelona does play the

    From barcelona_mes_que_un_club, on Fri 29 May 1:01AM
  7. I just pray mighty Liverpool will revenge us next­ season!!

    From rafascrackingup, on Fri 29 May 12:06AM
  8. kingofthegoldenriver

    Poor chelsea fan, living in the­ Precambrian times. So Barca should not celebrate­ because a referee was (questionably) poor? Go say that­ to Drogba and Bosingwa, they will give u more tips to­ curse.

    From Pooks, on Thu 28 May 11:59PM
  9. GEOFF

    Are you sure you did not forget that in the 1st­ half of that final, both teams were on 1-1, after­ Lampard's goal cancelled that of Ronaldo? Please,­ check it up again before you say something like this­ here. The second half ended goaless, as well as­ extra-time and that's when they went on penalties!

    From Pooks, on Thu 28 May 11:56PM
  10. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    How the hell did that lot of cheating scum beat our­ glorious team barcelona probably got to the officials­ before Sir Alex!!

    From rafascrackingup, on Thu 28 May 11:54PM
  11. Can you imagine it: we would've had man united­ rammed down our throats for weeks . . .thank you Barca,­ thank you!

    From cameron w, on Thu 28 May 11:33PM
  12. it should not be forgotten that Man U also did not­ score in the playing time of last years final­ eitherand won on penalties du terrys miss!

    From GEOFF S, on Thu 28 May 11:29PM
  13. say what you want about it, if chelsea were in the­ final they wouldnt be complaining about the dumb­ ref,since there not that was there fall back.

    From thrrgegt, on Thu 28 May 11:01PM
  14. comment 7 From barcelona_mes_que_un_club
    ..
    This is­ what you­ said ''''Barca is the­ only­ team in­ Europe to compeete every year in a­ European­­ Competition.This proves that La Liga is­­­ Better''''' ?
    What a load of­­ nonsense, why? because the fact that they (Barcelona)­­ achieve this every season actually says the rest of­­ their top flight teams are very poor.

    From CHILL its just my opinion, on Thu 28 May 10:59PM
  15. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    barca should not even have been in the final , a poor­ ref in the semi

    From alan, on Thu 28 May 10:49PM
  16. barcelona Spanish Giants who beat the so called best­ team the world

    From thrrgegt, on Thu 28 May 10:44PM
  17. first l u are talking nonsense!! a league consists of­ 18 - 20 teams not 4. from top to bottom la liga is a­ better league!! the likes of hull city or stoke would­ get torn apart by any spanish team!!

    From gregorabbott, on Thu 28 May 10:41PM
  18. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    to comment 7. wrong. i said before, congrats to­ barca,­ this year they were the best. second premier­ league is­ the best league, they lead in the 5 years­ uefa point­ rankings(dunno how it works but it's a­ fact)­ third. premier league had constantly 3 teams in­ the­ last eight in the last 5-6 years i think, each time­­ they met a spanish club they got past it(almost, barca­­ won 2 games with the english teams, their last two­­ finals, first of wich they did not deserved to).­­ barca's team defense is weak compared with the­­ defenses the premier league teams have, so what if­ they­ scored against man utd? and with a header?­ maradona­ scored with his hand, that did not make him­ better or­ the argentinian team better than England.­ TRUE: last­ night barca were the best, but man utd­ played awful, if­ they played like that in the semi­ they wouldn't­ have got here. next man did not­ deserve the crown this­ year, they had lots of 1-0 and­ lots of boring games,­ liverpool deserved it, but­ things don't go today in­ the right way. last :STOP­ judging an entire­ championship by a single team, and a­ single­ performance. i admit barca is #1 in the world­ but the­ next 4 teams are with no doubt the big four in­ england.­ if you are so proud of your championship­ think about­ the fact that the last 2 titles in spain­ were won by a­ team that did not manage in the last 4­ years to get­ past the last 16, they were not in the­ last 8 in these­ 4 years. fact. Barca are the best,­ Premier League is­ the best

    From First L, on Thu 28 May 10:18PM
  19. What a historic achievments with such amazing football­ from such superstars headed by King Messi . he was the­ star of the three trophies won . dazzling fans and­ defenders in Liga ... Superb performance in cup final­ ... masterful display in CL final with a superb header­ never to be forgotten . Messi is the project of the­ best ever player , at just 21 has achieved everything­ ...

    From hasan a, on Thu 28 May 10:07PM
  20. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    barcelona_mes_que_un_club,

    rubbish!

    From Winston Bunn, on Thu 28 May 9:59PM
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