Champions League Final – Half-Time Report
By: Wayne Farry | May 27th, 2009
What can I say? Absolutely stunning match so far. Fast-paced football, great one-touch passing (mostly from Barcelona). My 3-0 prediction of a United win is well out the window. But I can’t argue. United did dominate the first eight minutes, they passed it convincingly, pressured the Barca back four and looked dangerous, so dangerous that Pique (little bastard) had to block a Park attempt after just two minutes. But Barca scored eight minutes in through Eto’o with their first attack, and have grown ever since. They settled and have controlled the game for large portions. Messi has nestled into a more central role than many expected and has done very well, as has the talisman that is Iniesta. Ronaldo has been United’s best player in my view. He’s already had five or six attempts but it appears that he’s trying to do it all himself; shooting when more viable passing options are available. We all said it would come down to the midfield battle and so far Carrick, Anderson and Park have been incredibly ineffective. Poor passes, no defensive help and simply bad play have only added to Barca’s momentum. Vidic and VDS, too, have looked rather shaky but honestly, I think the whole team was shocked by Barca’s goal, coming during United domination, like it did. There has only been one real negative for me, that being that I feel that Pique should have been sent off for a foul on Ronaldo. Pique was the last man and completely blocked Ronnie off. But to the ref’s credit, it may have looked to him that The Yaya would get back to cover, but from the replay he wouldn’t have.
Whatever happens in the second half, it’s going to be an unbelievable second period. Both sides are going for it and it’s showing with beautiful football. So c’mon United, show Barca why you are the European champions!
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Category: Champions League
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Comments
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let’s put a few things to bed now, shall we?
myth: the epl is the greatest league in the world.
myth: epl games are so low-scoring because they play such great defense, not because there’s not a lot of great offense.
myth: la liga can’t play defense. (certainly not barca’s 2nd string D! certainly not against man u!!!)
myth: messi can’t score against the strong, tough defense of english teams.Posted from
United States
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prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Congratulations to Barca, they deserved it tonight.
Posted from
United States -
at the end you win nothing……all talk,talk,
Posted from
United Kingdom -
So much for 3-0 for United.
Posted from
Poland -
easy now guys, this is a crushing blow if your a man utd fan. give it a day at least.
Posted from
United States -
jeremy can we also put to bed the myth that you know what you’re talking about? thanks in advance. if you’re going to base all of your conclusions on one game you don’t really deserve to have a conclusion. you guys won today. deserve every bit of credit you get and then some. don’t act like a graceless third grader with halfwitted assumptions.
we didn’t play our best today and got put to sleep by a team that was more than ready to have a go at it. that’s the only conclusion you can draw from today.
Posted from
United States -
matt:
hey now, easy on the insults. i know you’re frustrated you just lost, and i’m sorry if my intention wasn’t clear, but it’s not as if i’m calling united out or anything. and i completely agree with you–i’m more advocating the undoing of the “conclusions”/myths i mentioned than trying to replace them with new ones. as someone who has long felt the EPL is vastly overrated because of 3 teams with deep pockets (and while i was happy to see barca win, they’re not the team i follow), it’s been a frustrating couple of weeks hearing about an invented superiority of premiership teams. and the massacre of barca today was supposed to be evidence of that. but the fact is that the supposedly weaker team just played the big english champion off the field. if you’re a united fan i understand you not wanting that to mean anything more than that you “didn’t play your best”, but for me it was a resounding refutation of the epl-hyping nonsense, and hopefully it’ll shut up at least a few of the epl fanboys. (and just so we’re clear, i’m not saying that that’s you–it sounds like you’re smarter than thinking a couple seasons of CL success means more than a couple teams being better on the night, and i salute you for that.)
Posted from
United States -
Lads, please calm it. Simply put, Barca deserved it, that’s it. Barca are a great team and honestly, a joy to watch them.
Posted from
Ireland -
sorry, wayne–i didn’t mean to start a fight at all, and i certainly didn’t want to take away from what’s been a very amicable post-match interchange between you and the barca fans. and hats off to you for handling the loss with total class. much appreciated and respected.
Posted from
United States -
Hey u lads man united played good but barca played beter more beter barca desevred it i admit
Posted from
Australia
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