Humble Hibernian, Bulldozer Barça – part 6

Humble Hibernian, Bulldozer Barça – part 6

Back in part 3 of this story I mentioned that Hibs played Barça again. Let me tell you the horrible story of that encounter.

Hibs finished 6th in the league in 2007-2008. They were leaders at that start of the season, but in January, they changed their manager and things went badly. By the end of the season they had recovered a little. Nothing special.

Hibernian v Barcelona, 24th July 2008, Murryfield stadium, Edinburgh. The game wasn’t played at Easter Road because Murryfield is bigger and more people could see it there. I think it was Pep Guardiola’s first game as manager.

Hibs lost 0-6. A friend of mine in Edinburgh, a Hibee too, sent me a text message saying, “Help. Call the police, we’ve been raped!” Now that’s quite heavy, and I’m sorry to include it, but it basically summarises what happened.

Goals – Gudjohnsen minute(s) 5 + 18, Messi 16, Pedro 28, Bojan 49, and Toure 67. It was 0-4 at half-time! We were so bad! It was a surprise that Barça didn’t score more goals. At this link you can see Yaya Toure’s goal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDeppKnxRUg

There are lots of reports and photos on Internet about this game, e.g.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1038517/Picture-special-Hleb-makes-debut-Messi-stars-Barca-Spanish-Harlem-Globetrotters-performance-Hibs.html#ixzz1pVYUOz6z

The teams were:

HIBERNIAN (4-4-2): McNeil; van Zanten, Hogg, Jones, Hanlon; Murray, Stevenson, Shiels, O’Brien; Nish, Fletcher. Substitues: Grof, Canning, Chisholm, Rankin, Cropley, Morais

BARCELONA (4-4-2): Valdes; Dani Alves, Marquez, Pique, Corcoles; Sergio, Vazquez, Gudjohnsen, Pedro; Henry, Messi. Subtitutes: Abraham, Bojan, Caceres, Crosas, Eto’o, Hleb, Jeffren, Keita, Pinto, Yaya Toure.