Why I Think We’ll Beat Barca In Rome!

By: Wayne Farry | May 6th, 2009

So there we have it. Aside from all the controversy of who should be in the Champions League Final, no one can deny that in Rome it’s going to be Barcelona facing Manchester United.

Barcelona scored a super-late equaliser in the ultra-controversial CL Semi-Final at Stamford Bridge. They played okay, but in all honesty should have had at least one penalty awarded against them.

So it’s us and them; the two best footballing sides in Europe, and in all truth, the world. The leaders of the Liga BBVA against the leaders of the Premier League. A meeting between many of the the best players in the world and also, a repeat of last year’s Semi-Final.

I’m happy with how the Semi-Final went to be honest, many people would prefer to play Chelsea rather than Barca but I wouldn’t. Barca are good, but I am supremely confident leading up to the Final.

And here’s why. First of all, Pep Guardiola’s Barca side are a sight to behold in La Liga. They rip apart defences, control midfields and their attacking trio is perhaps the most impressive in world football. Their three main strikers have scored more than ninety goals between them in all competitions this season and will score more. But in truth, La Liga is a far inferior league to the EPL. Now, many will disagree with me, I know that. La Liga has some good sides, i.e. Barca, Real, Sevilla, Villarreal and Atletico. But not one of La Liga’s sides has a defence to match that of Man United, Liverpool or Chelsea, that’s undeniable. Barca can rip through defences in La Liga but I’d wager quite a lot to say that they couldn’t do that to a lot of EPL teams.

Secondly, the EPL is a much more powerful and fast league than La Liga. Chelsea showed that both tonight and in last week’s game, as they hustled and harried Barca off the ball. Because of the physical demands of the EPL, players have to bigger, stronger and faster. La Liga games are played at a slower pace. Sure, it’s probably technically superior but you need to combine the two to succeed. You just need to look at the latter stage lineups of the Champions League in recent years to see that there have been more English teams than Spanish teams.

Finally, a lot of it comes to closing down. In La Liga players are given loads of time on the ball. Messi, Henry and co. can spread the ball about with ease and little fear of being dispossessed by the opposition. Even near the other team’s penalty box they’re given lots of room, and time. Mainly because of the fear they strike in other teams because of their skill, but also because teams are afraid of taking them down. And this is probably the main reason I’m not afraid of us facing Barca; we won’t give them any time on the ball. Without time on the ball, Barca are still good, but they’re like a rattlesnake without the venom. Against Chelsea at the Bridge they passed and passed around the pitch, but often became desperate in the final third and resorted to loose through balls that led to nothing. In the end they scored from Dani Alves’ only good cross of the game, which was headed toward Eto’o by a defender, then passed from Eto’o to Messi and from Messi to Iniesta, who scored with a stunning shot.

Whereas Chelsea scored one but couldn’t get the second, I think that if we score first at the Stadio Olimpico early on then we have a massive chance of nullifying the Barca threat and winning. Barca don’t seem to like chasing games against English teams. They like playing in the knowledge that they have time to score. Without that knowledge, and with a few players within a number of yards of each of their players they begin to panic. We saw that tonight, and had it not been for poor refereeing they would have paid for what was, ultimately a lack of fluency and creativity.

Honestly, if we score first I think we have it, regardless of who’s playing for Barca. We’re sure to score, I honestly think that. And if we press them as well as Chelsea did but show more potency than Chelsea tonight, we should all be very happy. Bring on 27 May!

So, I know we’ve just found out our CL Final opponents. But I felt the need to voice my feelings on the issue. Do the same in the commets below, it’ll be interesting to hear what you guys think.