“Remontada”: Barcelona’s tricky word
by M. Pighizzini | Thank to Barcelona-Juventus taking place tonight at Camp Nou stadium, we are reading once again the world “Remontada”, — or “Remuntada” in the catalan version— which in spanish means something like “comeback” or “turnaround”. The blau-graned story of this word is longer than you think: it was shown for the first time has a massive flash-campaign in 2010, when Messi, Puyol and their team mates had to face the glorious Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan. “Remuntada” slogan came out in a shy way in 2017, before the epic win against the Paris Saint-Germain. Today, “Remontada” came back in style during the last two weeks. With both Juventus and Barcelona still alive in Champions League for a few more hours, let’s see each case.
2010, Champions League, Barcelona-Inter Milan. The very first time hasn’t really been lucky. “Remuntada” campaign was born in 2010, after the 3–1 loss at the San Siro Stadium, against Inter Milan. Although Social Media weren’t as developed ad they are now, the campaign became massive and organized in a few days: Tv advertisings, epic videos (like the one at this link), t-shirts worn by players during warm up and a stadium looking like a blaugrana-dressed hell. During the hours before the match, Barcelona players were aggressive on the media— Piqué said “Wednesday night, we’ll let Inter players hate their job” — . It’s reported that, in front of the Inter Milan’s hotel, Barca’s fans made noise in order to don’t let the players sleep properly. The whole thing didn’t really bring luck: despite the 1–0 win, Inter Milan still made it to pass through the giant Camp Nou obsession, on his way to the trophy.
2017, Champions League, PSG-Barcelona. Seven years later, things went better. Barcelona had one of the most epic remuntadas of the football history. Celebrations were epic, with Lionel Messi pictured in triumph as and old-styled war painting. The reason of the success is understandable: first of all, the team didn’t felt under pressure. This is what happens when, instead of an obsessive and massive celebration before the match, “remuntada” concept was pumped up after it was actually completed. During the days before PSG-Barcelona, it felt like catalans had fear to pronunciate the “R word again”: no Milanese Ghosts were desired. Even in sports, you have to know how to use silence.
2017, Champions League, Barcelona-Juventus. Obviously, this story still has to be written. Even this time, the team was not exposed to any kind of pressure. Remuntada pictures still are being published on facebook, but all the expectations are coming from the supporters. Among the quotes reported by press, just Neymar said “I believe in remuntada. We have done it already, so we can do that again”. For this paragraph, history will write the very last sentence tonight.
