CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL Barcelona 3 Manchester Utd 1:TO THE United faithful who packed one end of Wembley on Saturday night, it must have felt as though they were witnessing a terrible beauty; something to be borne rather than savoured. Every one of them must have felt fortunate to possess a ticket for this hugely anticipated encounter as many more hopefuls, including friends and family members, had been left outside. By the end, though, their beloved side had been swept aside by one of the game's greatest teams.
Barcelona were simply awesome and they did it at the home of English football and the venue for one of United’s greatest triumphs 43 years ago. If there was any sense of surprise about it, though, it was prompted only by the ease with which Pep Guardiola’s men achieved their victory. It all must have had a painful familiarity for the followers of Alex Ferguson’s Premier League champions, who made the journey to Rome in 2009.
The Scot said before and after this game that his side’s success has been built on an ability to improve a little every year. If he really feels that United have progressed over the last couple of seasons, though, then he must be dismayed by the way Saturday night’s opponents have come on.
Having seen his side outplay England’s best side in most areas of the pitch at the Olympic Stadium two years ago, Guardiola insisted that they would do better in attack this time around. Sure enough, the Catalans swept the boards in every department on Saturday. As it turned out the margin of victory was the same when the Hungarian referee called a halt at the end of the 90 minutes, but the gulf in class was, if anything, even greater.
Just as they had then, United did manage to start brightly and for the 15 minutes or so that it took the favourites to hit their stride, Manchester fans might just have been lulled into thinking the script was going to be different this time. Victor Valdes had to hurriedly clear one ball into his area under pressure from Wayne Rooney and Gerard Pique almost beat his own goalkeeper with a jittery back pass, but the tide soon turned.
By the 20th minute a sea of scarlet and blue was washing over United’s midfield and back four and the team’s supporters were soon reduced to cheering a sequence of perhaps six successful passes, all played within 25 metres of Edwin Van Der Sar’s goal. Even then, the mini celebration was curtailed when the pace of it all proved too much for Ferguson’s men, a pass was misplaced, possession surrendered and the goalkeeper had to react smartly to prevent an opening goal.
That came soon enough in any case. Xavi, like Lionel Messi, a majestically impressive figure for the winners, was given a moment – which with him is a moment too long – to consider his options after 21 minutes and punished his opponents’ generosity by tearing them apart. A fleeting swerve to the left by the 31-year-old, promoted once again to captain in the absence of Carles Puyol, put the entire United defence off balance and the midfielder pushed a brilliant diagonal ball out the other way where Pedro was waiting, unmarked, to apply a straightforward finish.
Already, United’s central midfield of Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs looked hopelessly swamped. They weren’t helped much either by the wide men with Ji-Sung Park rarely making a significant impact in either attack or defence while Antonio Valencia who, it seemed, couldn’t manage a clean tackle, was fortunate to make it into the second half before he was finally booked for a wayward challenge.
Wholly against the run of play, however, Rooney snatched a fine equaliser after a neat move in which he twice played the central role before curling the ball past Valdes and into the top left corner. There seemed a sense even then that the effort would not end up counting for much although few would have predicted that it would be the last time over the course of the night that United would manage so much as an attempt on target.
For the rest of the evening Pique, though, marshalled the Barca defence so well that Javier Hernandez seemed almost as invisible as Dimitar Berbatov, who was nowhere to be seen after failing even to make the bench, and Rooney spent most of his evening dropping deep to lend a hand to the defensive effort. Both Barcelona full-backs were so comfortable, they pressed forward at will.
Most of United’s problems, though, originated in the centre where Xavi, the wonderful Andres Iniesta and the mesmeric Messi simply ran rings around their opponents. For the most part Nemanja Vidic actually played well while Rio Ferdinand wasn’t bad but the full-backs were poor, especially Patrice Evra who was endlessly dragged out of position and left chasing his tail over the course of the night.
The Frenchman made a forlorn attempt to block down Messi’s shot for the second just short of 10 minutes after the break but only succeeded, it seemed, in obscuring Van der Sar’s view as the goalkeeper reacted poorly to what looked a stoppable effort.
The Dutchman had no chance 15 minutes later, though, when Nani was left flummoxed moments after arriving into the game by the movement around him. Messi’s initial attempt to race into the box ended instead with Sergio Busquets teeing up David Villa for a sublime curling shot from the edge of the area.
It would have been nice had Barcelona powered on, as they looked well capable of doing, and turned the win into a rout for when the quality of this team is argued over in years to come, the scoreline really will not do them justice.
It would be churlish, though, to criticise the way they ran down through the gears in the closing minutes. Victory had, after all, been secured in breathtaking style and few in the 87,695 crowd could begrudge them either their title or the superlatives that, like the glittering confetti, were already raining down upon Barca heads at the final whistle.
BARCELONA: Valdes; Dani Alves (Puyol, 88 mins), Mascherano, Pique, Abidal; Busquets; Iniesta, Xavi; Villa (Keita, 86 mins), Messi, Pedro (Afellay, 90 mins).
Manchester United: Van der Sar; Fabio (Nani, 69 mins), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Valencia, Carrick (Scholes, 76 mins), Giggs, Park; Rooney; Hernandez.
Referee: Viktor Kassai(Hungary)
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