Sublime Barcelona beat United to claim treble
Barcelona stunned holders Manchester United to win their third Champions League crown with a 2-0 victory here on Wednesday.
Goals from star forwards Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi gave the Catalans a deserved victory and denied United from becoming the first team to retain the title since the European Cup became the Champions League in 1993.
It gave the Spaniards a unique treble having already won their domestic league and cup and meant they repeated a feat United achieved in 1999, which Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson had then claimed would never be matched.
It crowned a marvellous debut season for his Barcelona counterpart Pep Guardiola, who at 38 becomes the youngest coach to take European club football’s greatest prize.
For Thierry Henry, it ended years of frustration after his then-team Arsenal lost to Barcelona in the 2006 final.
“Finally I have won it! I have been waiting for so long for this moment,” said the France great, whose daughter celebrated her birthday as well on Wednesday.
“The last five minutes were the longest of my life.
“Even if we were 2-0 up we were playing the best team in the world (referring to the world club championship title United won earlier this year).”
Barca overcame early jitters to dominate large parts of the game as the English club never managed to get their usual high tempo game into gear.
In a clash billed as the match of the century pitting the best two teams in the world – with each one boasting one of the best two players in the world – only one played to their full potential.
And Ferguson may be questioning his team selection having left both Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez on the United bench as Ryan Giggs played off lone striker Cristiano Ronaldo with Wayne Rooney and Park Ji-Sung confined to disciplined roles on the flanks.
Both sides may a nervy start with Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes and United’s Park – the first ever Asian player to play in a Champions League final – playing passes straight into touch.
But United settled quickest and Ronaldo had a purple patch in which he terrorised the Spaniards for 10 minutes.
He hit a 25-yard free-kick that Valdes couldn’t hold and former United defender Gerard Pique had to dive in to deflect Park’s follow-up away for a corner.
Ronaldo then lashed a fierce long range drive wide and later, after controlling the ball on his chest, he hit a left-foot volley that sailed agonisingly inches past the post.
The reigning champions were enjoying all the ball and chances but out of the blue Barca took the lead.
Andres Iniesta played in Eto’o who beat Nemanja Vidic inside the box and although Michael Carrick slid in to try to block his shot, he succeeded only in helping it past Edwin van der Sar.
That goal settled Barca into their usual stride and they started to weave the pretty patterns that have been mesmerising opponents all season, carrying them to the remarkable feat of scoring more than 150 goals.
As the half wore on United gradually lost their shape and rhythm with Sir Alex Ferguson responding late on by pushing Rooney up alongside Ronaldo and Giggs out to the left.
Barca began to wrestle control of the game and were keeping the ball with alarming ease.
Ferguson wasted no time in switching tactics, bringing on Tevez for Anderson at the break and reverting to a more regular 4-4-2, the Argentine playing alongside Ronaldo and Giggs dropping back into a deeper role.
But Barca were first to strike on the counter as Henry cut in from the flank and left Ferdinand on the seat of his pants before shooting weakly at van der Sar on 48 minutes.
The Spaniards were totally in the ascendancy and Xavi fired a free-kick off the post on 53 minutes with van der Sar beaten as Barca threatened to run riot.
The reigning champions steadied the ship and Ferguson signalled his intent when he threw Berbatov on for Park with a quarter of the match remaining.
But just as the tide seemed to be turning, Barca extended their lead from the most unlikely source as Xavi picked out Messi at the back post on the edge of the six yard box, the Argentine wizard’s looping header arcing into the top corner on 70 minutes.
© AFP 2012
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tifosi said | May 28th 2009 @ 8:05am | Report comment
An absolutely glorious display of passing and possession football by barca. They made a great team such as Man Utd look like a bunch of amateurs. Spectacular stuff and well deserved.
gekko said | May 28th 2009 @ 8:21am | Report comment
It couldn’t go to a nicer team.
Congrats Barca.
Spiro Zavos said | May 28th 2009 @ 8:37am | Report comment
i saw a clip of Sir Alex Ferguson at a team training before the match in his shorts. He looked very relaxed and was not his scowling, agitatedly gum-chewing self. Did he believe the hype about Manchester United being the best team in the world and only having to take the field to win the match? Were Manchester United guilty of over-confidence?
Art Sapphire said | May 28th 2009 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Unicef 2 – AIG 0
Slippery Jim said | May 28th 2009 @ 9:07am | Report comment
Yes, well done Barca.
Amazing what buying €80 million worth of players in one season and getting away with countless fouls and handballs in the penalty area in the Semis will get you in the way of silverware.
Gekko, nice players don’t cheat.
Pippinu said | May 28th 2009 @ 9:12am | Report comment
A win for the beautiful game?
A win for Catalan autonomy (and all former subjects of the Aragonese crown, and their descendants)?
A strike against commercial excess and the commoditisation of football?
A win for all humanity?
tifosi said | May 28th 2009 @ 9:28am | Report comment
The final was exactly the reason why chelsea didnt deserve to be there.
Barcelona showed how beautiful football should be played. It was a joy to watch. To make man utd look second rate takes a lot of class. A win for the beautiful game indeed.
Midfielder said | May 28th 2009 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Just before we go to far .. Barca also spend a bit on their squad … having said that a great win..
Slippery Jim said | May 28th 2009 @ 9:45am | Report comment
Tifosi, in football, you deserve nothing purely on the basis of aesthetic appeal. It is not synchronised swimming or the cirque du soleil.
The opinions of all the theatre goers and balet fanciers aside, I simply can’t see a justification that a club that only managed one shot on goal in the entire second leg match of the Semis and, after failing to defeat their opposition over two legs, scraped through by getting away with cheating countless times is more deserving to be in the final. And yes, playing outside the rules and getting away with it is called cheating, no matter how oncompetant the referee is.
True, Barca didn’t get away with all of their attempts at cheating, such as the deliberate foul on Anelka by Abidal – in a post match interview, Abidal admitted: “If I let Nico run towards goal then he scores the second one and it is over, so we can say it is a good foul. I sacrificed myself.” The amount of times they did got away without penalties given for numerous tugs on arms and shirt pulls to drag down attacking strikers, and handballs to block shots on goal and passes, all in the Chelsea penalty area in the semi final was a travesty of justice and boggles the mind, quite frankly.
Pippu, read my post again. Are a club that spent €80 million at the start of the season on players, has the highest paid players in world football (two of whom are in the top five highest paid in the world), and has a manager on a multi-million euro salary really the poster boys for “A strike against commercial excess and the commoditisation of football?
Hardly.
Pippinu said | May 28th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment
sj
I still believe there is a case for putting Barca on a pedestal when it comes to some aspects of the modern game.
I repeat: who could ever have a bad thing to say about Barca??!!