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Lloyd Chitembwe

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor— 
FOR the CAPS United family, the Miracle of Barcelona on Wednesday night provided a throwback to that unforgettable afternoon — five months ago — when the Green Machine raised from the dead to avoid a Harare Derby humiliation in their fortress. And, as Makepekepe prepare to enter the lion’s den on Sunday for a CAF Champions League showdown against five-time African champions TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi, the Harare giants know they will need to evoke the same never-say-die spirit that helped the Catalan giants live to fight another day.

As fate might have it, their fascinating tales — the one that unfolded at the Camp Nou on Wednesday and one that emerged at the National Sports Stadium on October 16 last year — have a similar ringing tone to them, striking identical plots and, ultimately, a happy ending that left them in dreamland.

Of course, both were hosts and facing possible embarrassment in their backyard to opponents whose primary kit colour has a dominant blue shade.

And, while the stages might have been vastly different, the similarity of how they both refused to be buried by the sheer weight of the daunting odds confronting them, to somehow fight their way out of trouble and survive to enjoy the sweat of their spirited efforts is there for everyone to see.

On an incredible night, whose compelling drama drew tears among grown men barely able to believe what had just happened, Barcelona flirted from certain elimination — and the inevitable painful headlines of the end of an era this would have provoked — to the ecstasy of qualification for the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

And, on a day, when the thin line that divides being hailed as a hero or mocked as a villain was vividly displayed, it was Lionel Messi and his teammates who were toasting an improbable victory that is now being saluted around the world as a demonstration of not only their class but the purity of their football.

It’s hard to imagine that just seven minutes before the referee, whose diabolical decisions on big occasions also played a part in helping Barca’s cause, blew to end their showdown against French champions Paris St-Germain, the obituaries for the Catalans had already started to be written in newsrooms around the world.

Needing three goals, in two minutes of regulation time and five in time added on, Barcelona appeared down and out, their nightmare only beginning as it would be compounded by the painful negative headlines that would greet them in the morning after as the world mourned the end of an era for a team whose beautiful passing football had seduced the globe.

Brazilian superstar Neymar provoked Barca’s incredible comeback on Wednesday night, curling in a superb goal from a free-kick in the 88th minute before keeping his cool to convert a contentious penalty, a minute into time added on, after Luis Suarez had seemingly conned the referee by going down at the slightest of touches.

Given PSG were somehow denied a clear-cut penalty and the subsequent expulsion of Javier Mascherano for clipping the heels of Angel di Maria as he prepared to pull the trigger and end the contest, the referee’s decision to award Barca their second penalty of the night was both diabolical as it was defining in the context of the eventual outcome of the match.

But, as they say, fortune smiles on the brave and Barcelona probably earned and merited their slice of luck and, with the last play of the match, Neymar eliminated a defender on the right channel, floated a ball that speared through the hearts of the PSG defensive wall with time appearing to stand still for the 2.2 million residents of Paris, the 5.3 million residents of Barcelona and a global television audience running into billions. Then, Sergi Roberto timed his run to perfection, making a mockery of the Parisian defensive wall and his outstretched leg just managing the contact that sent his volley past the ‘keeper for the winner.

“Mayhem, utter mayhem,” BBC Sport Spanish football writer, Andy West, covering the game at the Nou Camp, noted.

“All around me, people were hugging, jumping, screaming. Grown men were crying and strangers were leaping into each other’s arms. Unlike so much of modern sport, there was nothing contrived or orchestrated about those celebrations, about that moment.

“This was deep, instinctive passion at its most authentic and unrefined. Just pure, wordless, thoughtless exhilaration. And it is surely for moments like this, which come along once every few years if you’re lucky, that sport is so compelling.” The world has, since last night, been debating whether this is the greatest comeback in the history of football and, while the CAPS United stunning fight-back in the Harare Derby five months ago didn’t feature in the debate, the Green Machine fans still rank it as one of the finest they have seen.

Goals by Denis Dauda (two) and Amon Kambanje in the last five minutes of regulation time, and five more in added time, helped the Green Machine bounce back from 0-3 down to force a 3-3 draw. And, ahead of their team’s Champions League showdown against TP Mazembe this weekend, many have been saying their men need to draw inspiration, not only from those events five months ago, but also from the drama at the Nou Camp on Wednesday which demonstrated that nothing is impossible in this game.

The influential German weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, also agrees.

“’Nothing is impossible, we will always believe, we’ll give it our all’, suddenly these hollow sayings sound like wise prophecies,” it noted in its edition yesterday.

“This time the prophets are called Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Luis Enrique.”