Andres Iniesta gets a double ovation in Cornella-El Prat
The Barcelona midfielder and one of the three Ballon d’Or finalist, Andres Iniesta, is not going to forget Saturday’s derby game against Espanyol.
The Spanish champions were to face their local city rivals in their home ground Cornella-El Prat. Josep Guardiola could not pick up a win last season as the match came to a goalless draw.
However, this year the Catalan coach made sure that he takes the best team in order to take all three points.
Josep Guardiola decided to take his favourite eleven for the derby encounter against Espanyol. The Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta was a part of the team as well. When the teams were lined up before the game, the Spaniard was given a special rousing ovation for his “famous gesture” towards the late Dani Jarque after he scored the famous goal in the final of the FIFA World Cup 2010.
As Espanyol were hosting Barcelona in a derby game, most football fans predicted that it would be a hard fought game. That was the basic reason why the voltage was high throughout the 90 minutes that were played.
However, there were two moments in the game when the Espanyol fans decided to change their hostility to respect for their neighbours and this was all because of one man, Andres Iniesta.
No Barcelona player had ever been given such an ovation by the Espanyol crowd. The city rivals always had something to chant against each other but with a legend like Andres Iniesta performing for the Spanish Champions, even their rivals showed respect.
As the names of all Barcelona players were announced on the loudspeaker, each and every player was booed. However, with Andres Iniesta’s name being announced, the home crowd decided to salute him for 15 seconds as the screen showed his picture for that amount of time.
When the next Barcelona player was named, it was back to the barracking. The Barcelona sporting director, Andoni Zubizarreta, spoke to the press after half time. He was asked about the event regarding Andres Iniesta and he looked to be totally positive. He articulated,“It’s things like that which show football has more things to bring us together than to push us apart”.
That clearly showed that each and every Barcelona fan was proud of Andres Iniesta’s achievement as the Spanish midfielder decided to give his shirt to Dani Jarque’s former club, Espanyol.
However, that was not the only time that Andres Iniesta was applauded.The Spanish midfield maestro and the FIFA World Cup 2010’s winning goal scorer was given another standing ovation later on. The second ovation for the Barca man came during the second half. When Barcelona scored their fifth goal and showed that they can score goals even if they don’t dominate possession in the centre midfield.
Josep Guardiola decided to bring him off for the former Sevilla man, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carles-Puyol-c8331, Xavi Hernandez, and, Victor Valdes to applaud Andres Iniesta off the pitch.
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