CATALUNYA - EUSKADI 2:2 (0:1)


Goals:
0-1 Adurizt (19')

0-2 Llorente (65')
1-2 Verdú (68')

2-2 Luque (84')


Attendance: 56,354


Catalunya: Víctor Valdés (Jorquera, 46); Curro Torres, Oleguer, Lopo (David Berenguer, 46), Fernando Navarro (Dani Fernández, 46), Roger, Gerard López (Jordi López, 55), Sergio (Verdú, 66), Jonathan Soriano (Oscar Serrano, 66), Corominas (Pinilla, 77) and Luque.


Euskadi: Riesgo (Lafuente, 46); López Rekarte (Murillo, 85), Aitor Ocio (Cruchaga, 46), Labaka, Casas, Orbaiz (Garitano, 85), Mendieta, Muñoz (Aramburu, 46), Aduritz (Llorente, 46), Uranga (Mikel Alonso, 46) and Gabilondo (Tiko, 55, Doñabeitia, 72).


Yesterday Catalunya and Euskadi (Basque country) played their first match for 35 years and the two teams drew 2-2 in front of more than 56,000 fans in Camp Nou. Catalunya fought back after the team went 0:2 behind. Adurizt (19') and Llorente (65') put Euskadi in front while Verdú (68') and Luque (84') levelled the score in a very entertaining encounter.


The Basque team had the better start in the opening minutes of the match. A sixth minute save by Victor Valdez prevented Catalunya to go behind. Aitor Ocio missed with a free-kick minutes later but it took not much longer before Aritz Aduriz clipped the ball over Valdés and into the net.


Catalunya came better into the game now and Albert Luque had a goal ruled out for offside and Roger fired over the crossbar with a long distance shot. The last chance for Catalunya before the halft time break came from Jonathan Soriano but Asier Riesgo had not problems to keep his sheet clean so far. Valdés made a superb save from Gabilondo just before the halftime withle.


The Basque Country again started better into the second half and Mikel Alonso came close to score. But the Basque had to wait until the 65th minute when substitute Fernando Llorente headed the ball into the top corner of the goal from 14 yards.


With 0:2 down the Catalans battled back and scored the 1:2 through Barça B player Joan Verdú, who's free-kick deflected from the wall into the goal. Luque scored the deserved equaliser 7 minutes from time. Luque celebrated the goal by lifting his shirt to show a get-well message for Samuel Eto'o.


The performance shown on the pitch was that worth of two national teams but even the date of the match was set by FIFA, the two nations will still have some way to go from here to get officially recognised. The two presidents of the Catalan and Basque governments, Pascual Maragall and Juan José Ibarretxe, explained their point of view. At half time Catalan Maragall stated to the media:

Now we should be allowed to play in official competitions, it is something that must happen.

Basque president Ibarretxe had similar ideas and expressed his strong opinion about the same issue:

This is something more than a game between friends, it is clear that we want to have a national team and to play official matches as a team.