Poor Paco cut an unfashionable figure tucked away in the corner of his bar in Barcelona.
Puffing away on his ciggies, supping on his cañas, Paco spent 97 minutes of Wednesday night being booed and barracked, hissed at and harassed by the dingy diveâÂÂs other proud patrons.
Paco hadnâÂÂt insulted the quality of the local barâÂÂs ham, nor had he recommended the occasional wipe-down of the dunnies.
Instead, Paco was the last remaining Chelsea fan in Catalunya, as mentioned in previous La Liga Loca posts. Until Andrés IniestaâÂÂs super-strike, that is.
At that moment, the devastated dropout watched tantrum-filled tiny-tots Ballack and Drogba coming THIS close to beating up the referee with a torrent of whines and whinges. âÂÂNah, IâÂÂm done with them,â declared Paco, returning to the non-foreign fold.
"Cheers ref"
âÂÂáToma!â â âÂÂHave it!â â cried his new bar buddies.
âÂÂáToma! áToma! áToma!â yells the front cover of Sport, on Thursday.
âÂÂáToma!â echoed the Barça-loving companions of the blog in its local dive - Barça-loving companions from Toledo who only ever watch their team in the Champions League, showing that the Surrey-Manchester United effect is just as common in Spain.
With all the excitement of IniestaâÂÂs moment of genius, it was easy to overlook the somewhat controversial refereeing display when watching the game in Camp Culé.
All that seemed to matter in the end was that a horrible, bus-parking, anti-football, ref-chasing monstrosity of a side had been thwarted in Europe, once again.
And thatâÂÂs the opinion of the Catalan press, of course, and not La Liga Loca which doesnâÂÂt fancying facing the death-threat treatment about to handed out to poor old whistleblower Tom Henning Ovrebo.
"Who in the what now?"
âÂÂFootball beat anti-football,â trumpets SportâÂÂs Josep Maria Casanovas on a familiar riff.
His colleague Joan Vehils takes delight in yet more scenes of street-dancing, bin-throwing and fire-starting in the Catalan capital to greet the late, late winner â the second time such festivities have been witnessed in just five days.
âÂÂThis side is so great that weâÂÂve still not won anything but weâÂÂve been a few times to Canaletes now... we can only express ourselves with jumping, shouting, hugging and crying,â giggles the delirious Vehils.
Mundo Deportivo are also running on a âÂÂjustice has been doneâ tip, with Santi Nolla grumbling over a Chelsea side that âÂÂis obsessed with getting the result, defensive football and muscle against skill, attacking football and the spectacle.âÂÂ
The penalty claims for Chelsea are largely brushed over in the Barça press, although Sport do touch on the subject with an online poll suggesting that the visitors were given a helping hand by the Norwegian man in the middle.
"PLAY ON!!!"
Marca are less obtuse and note that âÂÂSuper Iniesta and the referee puts Barça in the final.â However, their lead writer argues that Chelsea got their just desserts in the end.
âÂÂIt was poor stuff from a team that has cost 500m Euro over the past four years,â scoffs Santiago Segurola.
However, the paperâÂÂs main concern on Thursday is the news that former Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón was accused of corruption by two different judges on two different cases on the same day.
AS put the Champions League finalists where they belong, on the front page, but leave it to possible pretend Perico and boring Barça-baiter Tomás Guasch to have a pop at the manner of the Catalan clubâÂÂs passing.
sâÂÂThe gentlemen who watch over The Rules of The Game decided that there wouldnâÂÂt be penalties. But they didnâÂÂt tell Chelsea that because they asked for four. Three as big as cathedrals.âÂÂ
And thatâÂÂs about the same size as the controversy that will be rumbling through both England and Spain over the next few days as the football world chews over what was a stunningly fun night at Stamford Bridge.
NEWS: Iniesta blockbuster breaks Blues hearts
NEWS: Semi-final hoodoo hits Hiddink again
PHOTOS: Chelsea 1-1 Barcelona
NEWS: Last-gasp goal validates purist approach
NEWS: Pep hero status further enshrined at Barca
NEWS: Drogba likely to suffer ire of UEFA
NEWS: Hiddink: Worst refereeing I've seen
La Liga Loca homeBlogs homeLatest Spain news
News homeInterviews homeForums home
FourFourTwo.com home
