The Reasons
As both teams emerged into the great Wembley stage last night, hearts in Catalonia were shivering when they saw no Carles Puyol entering along and back in Manchester, belief in a 4th Champions League trophy for the Red Devils was given a big boost!
As the Hungarian Viktor Kassai blew the whistle for the start of the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final, the United players went into a frantic rage of possession; dictating the pace of the game with Park Ji Sung zapping around from angle to angle. Somewhere back in Madrid, a certain Jose Mourinho was watching and thinking "Time for payback"...
Well for as far as the first 10 minutes of the game, United looked like they were on their way to controlling this game; allowing no space whatsoever for Barcelona's players to pass or even move! With Park trailing Messi, United's back-line delivering those long balls deep into Barcelona's defense and Rooney coming close on the 7th minute after Mascherano was provoked through a long ball.
It looked like Sir Alex Ferguson was on his way to avenge 2009's defeat...Then came Barcelona's first chance in the 15th minute from a Villa-Xavi-Pedro combination and at that moment, it was 66% possession for Barcelona compared to a mere 34% for United (with 111 passes to 51 respectively).
From there on, the game opened up with Villa's shot at the 19th only to be denied by the mighty Vidic. United were still playing those long balls and Javier Hernandez was still being caught offside! A minute later El Guaje produced a fine shot from distance only to see a brilliant save from Edwin Van Der Sar and United quickly took it to the counter with Mascherano recovering in defense.
At that time, Ferguson was ranting and instructing his midfielders to go wide and open up the play but it was just a matter of 2 minutes until Pedro, aka Pedrito, drew first blood for the Catalans! It came after Pep Guardiola instructed Villa to switch positions with Pedro, Iniesta playing it to Xavi in Midfield (who was COMPLETELY unmarked, exactly the thing that United were NOT supposed to do) and Xavi in turn giving it that one look up and playing the smoothest of passes to Pedro, leaving Vidic helpless by himself because Evra was somewhere he was not supposed to be, and the young Spaniard made no mistake of placing it calmly to Van Der Sar's bottom left corner!! 1-0 to Barcelona right there, with Xavi presenting to the world the FIRST reason why FC Barcelona will later lift the cup high in London.
Time was passing by and United were just wandering around, watching Barcelona play their football, like the 400 million TV viewers around the world! At the 32nd minute it was still 66% for Barcelona but 265 Passes at the time, compared to the 100 from United (which were mainly in their defensive-midfield area!). A throw-in from Abidal to Villa and the ball was all of a sudden in Barcelona's box with Rooney playing Giggs inside and the mighty Welshman playing it back to Rooney for a signature goal from The Boy Wonder. Whether Giggs was offside or not, it didn't really matter for any United fan out there as it gave them hope before the break! Another shot from Xavi, a one-touch play from Villa and the whistle for the first Half came with the score line at 1-1; but no one knew why there's a 1 next to United's name at half-time, not even Sir Alex himself (who seemed to "educate" Rooney just before the break on who the boss really is!).
The players came back from the halftime break looking fresh and United's fans were hoping for a far better second half, so did Barcelona's fans; who experienced a much more competitive semi-final against rivals Real Madrid and were hoping for something like that, seeming it was THE FINAL and all...
Sky Sport's directors were running some sort of joke when they compared Xavi's passing accuracy to Carrick's at the start of the second half, standing at 95% to 76%, although they both played the full first 45 minutes, correct me if I'm wrong please...
Barcelona went into their rhythm very early, pressuring and pushing forward every chance they got with Dani Alves coming close on the 51st minute followed by a cheeky shot from Messi to be denied by Evra's head (his first MAJOR contribution in defense so far). 3 minutes later and it was Lionel Messi's turn to score; given absolute freedom in United's area, the young Argentinian had all the time in the world to take aim and power a shot at the 40 year-Old Dutch goalkeeper to score his first goal on English soil!! It was such a preventable goal for United, especially for the defense and the goalkeeper!! But alas, 2-1 was the score line as Barcelona just started to end United's misery! Leo Messi showing the world the SECOND reason why Barcelona are the best in Europe, if not the world...
Antonio Valencia took his tally of fouls committed to 4, but no yellow card was shown in any of those 4 fouls though (so far) and it was Dani Alves who received the first booking of the night for a ferocious tackle on Patrice Evra; only for Michael Carrick to pick up the second yellow card of the night a few seconds after. The game started to shape-up slowly with Barcelona enjoying possession and United enjoying, well, to spectate.
A few beautiful shots here and there from Messi and Xavi (got to give credit to Van Der Sar for that save though!) between the 60th and 65th minute with Abidal constantly pushing up to support Pedro. Then it was Nani's turn to "shine", coming in for Fabio with Sir Alex opting to retreat Valencia back into a Side-Back position just like he did against Chelsea in the quarter-final (which proved to be a success). For all those United fans who had some hope of salvaging the game, it was a minute or two before those hopes were shattered!
At the 69th Leo Messi showed some of his brilliance by getting past United's defense then a quick scramble in the box and the ball was at David Villa's feet...Spain's 2010 World cup Top-Scorer taking one of his personal best shots of this season and at such a hard angle with all of United's defense standing there and watching helplessly! That made it 3-1, with all of Barcelona's forwards scoring a goal each, proving the THIRD reason why Barcelona are evidence of the best football played at this era!
At that point, all one could hear in Wembley were the chants of Barcelona's faithfuls singing "Madrid! Cabron! Saluta al Campeon!". With Rooney trying a "Villa" at the 71st and Giggs walking around like he had nothing to do with football, it was all but over (even though that was the case long ago but it was an assurance to every United fan out there at that moment)...
Pep was urging his players to go forward every now and then, Sir Alex on the other hand switched Carrick for Scholes at the 76th and Antonio Valencia finally getting that booking he deserved 5 fouls ago. With 10 minutes left to play, Sir Alex was sitting there on the bench; watching helplessly and squeezing his fists in a method to calm his nerves down as he relived a 2009 Rome Final on the UK's finest stadium. Victor Valdes took another acrobatic jump a few minutes later, and why wouldn't he? He's the only player on the Barcelona squad who didn't GET to contribute a lot during that match. Nani came close on the 85th and Iniesta tried a smart lob from distance a few minutes later, just for the game to slowly fade away until Viktor Kassai blew the final whistle to end United's misery and bring joy to every Catalonian fan out there!!
It was a perfect game for Barcelona, in defense, MIDFIELD and attack. As for United, well we can easily say that they have played much better than they did in Rome but not good enough. All that talk about Park Ji Sung being the key to United's success or Giggs shaking off his off-pitch drama to guide United to a 4th European trophy or Sir Alex Ferguson's 2 weeks planning ahead of that game was all brushed away with Barcelona's magnificent football!
If anyone has a doubt about whether Barcelona is THE team to beat, they just have to watch last night's game again and any doubt will be cleared right away. It was a bitter-sweet end to a great season for everyone; while Mourinho plans for a European takeover next season; we, as lovers of this beautiful game, can enjoy years to come from a great Barcelona side offering nothing but pure and passionate football.
As the Hungarian Viktor Kassai blew the whistle for the start of the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final, the United players went into a frantic rage of possession; dictating the pace of the game with Park Ji Sung zapping around from angle to angle. Somewhere back in Madrid, a certain Jose Mourinho was watching and thinking "Time for payback"...
Well for as far as the first 10 minutes of the game, United looked like they were on their way to controlling this game; allowing no space whatsoever for Barcelona's players to pass or even move! With Park trailing Messi, United's back-line delivering those long balls deep into Barcelona's defense and Rooney coming close on the 7th minute after Mascherano was provoked through a long ball.
It looked like Sir Alex Ferguson was on his way to avenge 2009's defeat...Then came Barcelona's first chance in the 15th minute from a Villa-Xavi-Pedro combination and at that moment, it was 66% possession for Barcelona compared to a mere 34% for United (with 111 passes to 51 respectively).
From there on, the game opened up with Villa's shot at the 19th only to be denied by the mighty Vidic. United were still playing those long balls and Javier Hernandez was still being caught offside! A minute later El Guaje produced a fine shot from distance only to see a brilliant save from Edwin Van Der Sar and United quickly took it to the counter with Mascherano recovering in defense.
At that time, Ferguson was ranting and instructing his midfielders to go wide and open up the play but it was just a matter of 2 minutes until Pedro, aka Pedrito, drew first blood for the Catalans! It came after Pep Guardiola instructed Villa to switch positions with Pedro, Iniesta playing it to Xavi in Midfield (who was COMPLETELY unmarked, exactly the thing that United were NOT supposed to do) and Xavi in turn giving it that one look up and playing the smoothest of passes to Pedro, leaving Vidic helpless by himself because Evra was somewhere he was not supposed to be, and the young Spaniard made no mistake of placing it calmly to Van Der Sar's bottom left corner!! 1-0 to Barcelona right there, with Xavi presenting to the world the FIRST reason why FC Barcelona will later lift the cup high in London.
Time was passing by and United were just wandering around, watching Barcelona play their football, like the 400 million TV viewers around the world! At the 32nd minute it was still 66% for Barcelona but 265 Passes at the time, compared to the 100 from United (which were mainly in their defensive-midfield area!). A throw-in from Abidal to Villa and the ball was all of a sudden in Barcelona's box with Rooney playing Giggs inside and the mighty Welshman playing it back to Rooney for a signature goal from The Boy Wonder. Whether Giggs was offside or not, it didn't really matter for any United fan out there as it gave them hope before the break! Another shot from Xavi, a one-touch play from Villa and the whistle for the first Half came with the score line at 1-1; but no one knew why there's a 1 next to United's name at half-time, not even Sir Alex himself (who seemed to "educate" Rooney just before the break on who the boss really is!).
The players came back from the halftime break looking fresh and United's fans were hoping for a far better second half, so did Barcelona's fans; who experienced a much more competitive semi-final against rivals Real Madrid and were hoping for something like that, seeming it was THE FINAL and all...
Sky Sport's directors were running some sort of joke when they compared Xavi's passing accuracy to Carrick's at the start of the second half, standing at 95% to 76%, although they both played the full first 45 minutes, correct me if I'm wrong please...
Barcelona went into their rhythm very early, pressuring and pushing forward every chance they got with Dani Alves coming close on the 51st minute followed by a cheeky shot from Messi to be denied by Evra's head (his first MAJOR contribution in defense so far). 3 minutes later and it was Lionel Messi's turn to score; given absolute freedom in United's area, the young Argentinian had all the time in the world to take aim and power a shot at the 40 year-Old Dutch goalkeeper to score his first goal on English soil!! It was such a preventable goal for United, especially for the defense and the goalkeeper!! But alas, 2-1 was the score line as Barcelona just started to end United's misery! Leo Messi showing the world the SECOND reason why Barcelona are the best in Europe, if not the world...
Antonio Valencia took his tally of fouls committed to 4, but no yellow card was shown in any of those 4 fouls though (so far) and it was Dani Alves who received the first booking of the night for a ferocious tackle on Patrice Evra; only for Michael Carrick to pick up the second yellow card of the night a few seconds after. The game started to shape-up slowly with Barcelona enjoying possession and United enjoying, well, to spectate.
A few beautiful shots here and there from Messi and Xavi (got to give credit to Van Der Sar for that save though!) between the 60th and 65th minute with Abidal constantly pushing up to support Pedro. Then it was Nani's turn to "shine", coming in for Fabio with Sir Alex opting to retreat Valencia back into a Side-Back position just like he did against Chelsea in the quarter-final (which proved to be a success). For all those United fans who had some hope of salvaging the game, it was a minute or two before those hopes were shattered!
At the 69th Leo Messi showed some of his brilliance by getting past United's defense then a quick scramble in the box and the ball was at David Villa's feet...Spain's 2010 World cup Top-Scorer taking one of his personal best shots of this season and at such a hard angle with all of United's defense standing there and watching helplessly! That made it 3-1, with all of Barcelona's forwards scoring a goal each, proving the THIRD reason why Barcelona are evidence of the best football played at this era!
At that point, all one could hear in Wembley were the chants of Barcelona's faithfuls singing "Madrid! Cabron! Saluta al Campeon!". With Rooney trying a "Villa" at the 71st and Giggs walking around like he had nothing to do with football, it was all but over (even though that was the case long ago but it was an assurance to every United fan out there at that moment)...
Pep was urging his players to go forward every now and then, Sir Alex on the other hand switched Carrick for Scholes at the 76th and Antonio Valencia finally getting that booking he deserved 5 fouls ago. With 10 minutes left to play, Sir Alex was sitting there on the bench; watching helplessly and squeezing his fists in a method to calm his nerves down as he relived a 2009 Rome Final on the UK's finest stadium. Victor Valdes took another acrobatic jump a few minutes later, and why wouldn't he? He's the only player on the Barcelona squad who didn't GET to contribute a lot during that match. Nani came close on the 85th and Iniesta tried a smart lob from distance a few minutes later, just for the game to slowly fade away until Viktor Kassai blew the final whistle to end United's misery and bring joy to every Catalonian fan out there!!
It was a perfect game for Barcelona, in defense, MIDFIELD and attack. As for United, well we can easily say that they have played much better than they did in Rome but not good enough. All that talk about Park Ji Sung being the key to United's success or Giggs shaking off his off-pitch drama to guide United to a 4th European trophy or Sir Alex Ferguson's 2 weeks planning ahead of that game was all brushed away with Barcelona's magnificent football!
If anyone has a doubt about whether Barcelona is THE team to beat, they just have to watch last night's game again and any doubt will be cleared right away. It was a bitter-sweet end to a great season for everyone; while Mourinho plans for a European takeover next season; we, as lovers of this beautiful game, can enjoy years to come from a great Barcelona side offering nothing but pure and passionate football.
Ahmad Al-Omar - 29. May, 12:39
