FC Barcelona v Man United

[el nino laff]

My record of everytime I bet on the mancs they loose is still intact... had them to win last night and to win on penalties just in case! bet on them against arsenal aswell sadly was too late!

[lawrie]

I'm gonna watch the match again as I didnt enjoy it as much as I should have first time round. Did anyone else think, even with only 5 minutes to go,that the Mancs were bound to turn it round?

[Cath]

I'm gonna watch the match again as I didnt enjoy it as much as I should have first time round. Did anyone else think, even with only 5 minutes to go,that the Mancs were bound to turn it round?

 

Yup, couldn't believe they had no fight in them. All second half I expected them to find another gear. But no. How some can conclude this is the best Ferguson side ever is a mystery to me.

[navbasi]

Yup, couldn't believe they had no fight in them. All second half I expected them to find another gear. But no. How some can conclude this is the best Ferguson side ever is a mystery to me.

 

Hopefully that's a sign of things to come. No Ronaldo, No Giggs, No Scholes, No Tevez, No Neville, add a few more shite players and it looks like it might finally be an end of an era for them..

 

No doubt they will spend big in the summer, but I'd be more than happy for him to spend another £30m+ on a Berbatov signing!!

[RedinSweden]

Hopefully that's a sign of things to come. No Ronaldo, No Giggs, No Scholes, No Tevez, No Neville, add a few more shite players and it looks like it might finally be an end of an era for them..

 

No doubt they will spend big in the summer, but I'd be more than happy for him to spend another £30m+ on a Berbatov signing!!

 

or Nani*, or Anderson*, or Hargreaves for a combined 52 million

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Disclaimer: If, in the future, this pair turn out to be ace, this part is null and void. Owen Hargreaves will always be shit. And injured.

[betterman]

or Nani*, or Anderson*, or Hargreaves for a combined 52 million

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Disclaimer: If, in the future, this pair turn out to be ace, this part is null and void. Owen Hargreaves will always be shit. And injured.

 

Think your safe. I dont rate either, especially Norma.

[WaltonRed]

I'd forgotten Hargreaves even plays for them until I saw him at the end on the pitch

[RedinSweden]

I'd forgotten Hargreaves even plays for them until I saw him at the end on the pitch

 

He's had a fuckload of knee surgery. never good that. It was so long ago i saw him play for them i can't even remember if he was doing ok or not.

[dirty_sanchez]

By the way, what was Eto'o's celebration all about. Was it some kind of heroin joke?

[lfc123]

Van der Sar- weak when it mattered should have saved Eto’o’s opener.

O’shea- looks like Peter Kay after liposuction and frankly plays like him.

Ferdinand- still trying to get out of the knot Henry turned him into, oh Rio you know that Messi lad? Well ‘he’s behind you!’

Vidic-Andy (King Edward) Gray said after Sammy ripped him to bits, “he’s having another off day Just like when he came up against Torres at Old Trafford,” funny that isn’t it, two world class strikers two off days!

Evra- another non existent player who has been losing his game all season.

Carrick- Apparently Sky reckons he ran the furthest at a whopping 10k! did he touch the ball and if not where the bloody hell was he off to in such a hurry?

Anderson- arrr good old Predator, if you want to see how not to spend £25m watch his DVD.

Giggs- Shouldn’t have bothered getting over the fence at the retirement home, your finished lad for gods sake let it go!

Rooney- No doubt had his mind on his pregnant wife as he wondered who the father was, well it cant be him(allegedly) as he can’t seem to finish anything off! Seriously the lad has never turned up when it matters in the big games, it’s all right tormenting Bolton but try doing it against the big guns eh!

Ronaldo- Before the game in his interview he hinted he may be leaving Man Utd. He then ran round for ten minutes trying to do everything on his own now after the match he’s hinting he might be off again! You’re a disgrace to any proper Man Utd fan you egotistical, posing, poncy little lady boy. (oh by the way im not a fan of his)

Park- nothing nasty to say about this lad as I think he does his best and always seems to get sacrificed when the subs come on.

Tevez- errr I will reserve judgement until I see who he signs for!

Scholes- as in Giggs the ginger ninja should quit before he really hurts someone.

Berbatov- Who! you may ask, do you remember seeing a tall skinny lad with a face on him like a sulky Lithuanian beetroot farmer? Well that’s him and yes he was on the pitch but god only knows what for, A lad who makes Voronin look like Pele while costing the Mancs a good proportion of their increasing debt.

[WaltonRed]

He's had a fuckload of knee surgery. never good that. It was so long ago i saw him play for them i can't even remember if he was doing ok or not.

 

I know his knee has gone but it does put it slightly in to context (and I'm one of the biggest critics when its the money game being mentioned) that they have a 17m midfielder missing and it doesnt even dent the first team.

[lfc123]

 

Pity VDS!

[RedinSweden]

By the way, what was Eto'o's celebration all about. Was it some kind of heroin joke?

 

dedicated it to his dad apparently "the blood of my father". the first thing I thought was "smackhead"

[Bigsy]

loved it last night, i hate united as expected, but i am not one for being all smug in their faces at work.

 

that was until now, when i see a friend update his staus on facebook, to '3 times without killing anyone we won it 3 times'.

 

I am all for banter but that is beyond the pale, the set of cunts.

[aws]

loved it last night, i hate united as expected, but i am not one for being all smug in their faces at work.

 

that was until now, when i see a friend update his staus on facebook, to '3 times without killing anyone we won it 3 times'.

 

I am all for banter but that is beyond the pale, the set of cunts.

 

have a look at the thread lower down the page

[Chocoholic]

From Henry Winter in The Telegraph

 

 

Back of the net: Samuel Eto'o beats Edwin van der Sar in Rome

 

Winner: Lionel Messi loops his header over Edwin van der Sar to seal the Champions League final for Barcelona in Rome

 

European Champions: Sylvinho and Thierry Henry congratulate Lionel Messi on the goal that won the Champions League for Barcelona

 

Manchester United arrived here hoping to make history, yet left having been consigned to it. The champions of England are too good not to come again in Europe next season, and empires can rise as well as fall in Rome, but last night nothing could console United’s magnificent supporters, who gave the team intense vocal backing yet were rewarded with a truly dreadful performance.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s horse won the 5.15 at Lingfield but his team of thoroughbreds simply were not at the races in the Infernal City. Uncertain defensively, United were careless in possession and lacking focus in attack. Invincible in the Premier League, they became invisible when it counted most in the Champions League. For those who admire United, their no-show was as astonishing as it was exasperating.

 

 

The bitter truth for United is that Barcelona endured more testing times in their semi-final with Chelsea. None of Ferguson’s stars shone and, painful to report, they were handicapped. As the inquests begin, as the carcass of United’s embarrassing defeat is picked over, the tactics employed by Ferguson will inevitably come under the severest of scrutiny.

 

His decision to start Ryan Giggs in the hole behind Cristiano Ronaldo in a 4-2-3-1 formation backfired badly, managing the remarkable double of somehow leaving Ronaldo isolated and Michael Carrick and Anderson badly exposed. In a long season, this was a game too far for Giggs, who was constantly bypassed. A 4-3-3 approach, which most observers had expected, would have brought more security to midfield.

 

Given the stage, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Lionel Messi ran the show. Like Ronaldo, the left-sided Wayne Rooney cut an increasingly frustrated figure, waiting for a ball that rarely came such was Barcelona’s dominance of possession.

 

Chasing the game after Samuel Eto’o’s 10th-minute strike, Ferguson naturally had to introduce more attackers, first Carlos Tevez, then Dimitar Berbatov, but he imbalanced the team. First it was 4-2-4, then effectively 4-1-5. Iniesta and Xavi enjoyed large swathes of midfield to themselves, Barcelona’s rhythm section sending wave after wave of attacks rolling on to United’s foreshore. Poor Carrick resembled a fireman facing a large blaze with a short hose.

 

United were virtually playing the Polo formation – nothing in the middle – and Barcelona soon added a second, this time headed in by Messi. It is on chastening occasions like this that the loss to tendinitis of Owen Hargreaves is felt most acutely. A natural defensive midfielder, Hargreaves would have got among Xavi and Iniesta.

 

Ferguson was gracious in defeat, saluting the fabulous individual talents that make Barcelona so special, yet this was also a victory founded in hard work. Xavi and Iniesta did to Premier League opponents what the English often do to Continental foe: hound them out of possession. Messi, so small of frame yet so immense of talent, industrious as well as inventive, ended the debate over who was the best player on the planet.

 

After a bright opening, during which he seemed to adopt a shoot-on-sight policy, Ronaldo was too subdued. Although everyone at Old Trafford expects the European Footballer of the Year to stay, there were times in the closing stages when he seemed intent on endearing himself to any Real Madrid fans tuning in. Resplendent all in white, Ronaldo twice clattered Barcelona’s captain, Carles Puyol, earning a booking. At times, Ronaldo also appeared to be playing for himself, not for the team.

 

What a shame. This was a decent final, with the outcome thoroughly justified. United fans looking for some light on the darkest of nights will be encouraged by Ferguson’s post-match demeanour, by the spiky way he responded to a question about the hunger burning within him and his players. For all the gloom accompanying United back to England, Ferguson has the personnel and the attitude to reach next season’s final. They will be hurting. But they will be back.

 

And so will their fans. For a particularly unfortunate few, last night brought intense woe. A group of supporters whose tickets were stolen from Old Trafford were told by United to collect their replacements from a Portakabin outside the Olympic Stadium but inside the security cordon. Despite pleas to stewards and Uefa officials, these United fans missed the match. Such high-profile events are never perfect, and Uefa does deserve praise for tarting up the ageing stadium, but the ticketing system again needs re-examining. Forgeries also caused problems.

 

At times it seemed like the counterfeit champions had emerged from the tunnel. Deceptively, as it transpired, United had been the first to show, flying from the traps. Ronaldo tested Victor Valdes with a first-minute free-kick and Ji-sung Park almost reached the rebound. Still United menaced, Ronaldo firing two shots wide but Barcelona’s canny young coach, Pep Guardiola, was tweaking his front-line, switching Messi and Eto’o.

 

Suddenly, the little Argentine magician was through the middle, and United seemed distracted. Iniesta darted into a pocket of space, releasing the ball down the inside-right channel. Eto’o was off and running, cutting in towards goal, embarrassing Nemanja Vidic with the speed and angle of his attack. Voted player of the year by United’s footballers and fans alike, Vidic has enjoyed a fantastic season but endured a Fernando Torres moment here. As Carrick slid in, as Edwin van der Sar threw himself across, Eto’o flicked the ball with his right foot between the keeper and the post. Disaster. Barcelona were ahead and were not in the mood to surrender the ball, let alone the lead.

 

As Eto’o ran to the corner-flag, tears welling in his eyes, Rio Ferdinand sought to lift United’s spirits. The English fans responded, backing the players loudly as the pride of Old Trafford were given a lesson in possession by Barcelona. The eye kept being drawn to the darting box of tricks that was Messi, who dribbled past Carrick and Vidic, was knocked over, jumped up and kept going. Here was the “courage to play’’ that Ferguson had talked of. Messi’s blue boots were everywhere, striking dread into United hearts, one minute skipping away from Ferdinand, the next playing 1-2s with Iniesta. Sensational.

 

When United did get hold of the ball, Barcelona’s pressing was relentless. Ferguson began ringing the changes and the ringing soon sounded like alarm bells as Barcelona swept into untended space. Thierry Henry would have scored but for Van der Sar’s reflexes. Xavi would have scored but for a post repelling his free-kick. A deserved second soon arrived when Xavi, enjoying the freedom of Rome, crossed for Messi, the shortest player on the pitch, to loop a header over Van der Sar.

Game over. United’s hearts were broken. But they will mend. They will return.

 

 

 

Always a great read from Henry. The bits I've highlighted made me particularly happy!

[aws]

Good report but I must have missed the fantastic Manc support.

[RobbieOR]

Good report but I must have missed the fantastic Manc support.

 

I think we all did. A fella out of the British embassy was on and said that the mancs were a credit to the UK with 'their fantastic sportsmanship'. Next pictures Sky were showing Barca celebrating with the cup and an empty end of blue seats.

[Wor Horse]

One is owned by its fans, the other has sold it's soul to the evil of capitalism.

 

One wears the mark of corrupt bankers upon its shirt, the other sports the logo of Unicef, bringing hope to poor everywhere.

 

One has the cross of Christ on its badge, the other has satan.

 

It was the ultimate good versus evil, where good won (by a long, long way!)

[Code]

 

Pity VDS!

 

Disturbing this, will Messi sign for the Toon next?

[LivFan]

lame mancs last night

[3 Colours Red]

Just a quick rant on a pet hate. It happened yesterday as it does at most big matches.

 

Why do news programmes sent out reporters into crowds of football fans? They always end up surrounding the bloke and singing or on their mobile phones calling home and smirking like a complete tit.

 

Then is goes back to Fiona Bruce in the studio who is thinking " Where did he find that bunch of twats"

[Section_31]

Great stuff, as ever. (except for the Father Ted moment at the start)

 

Football Weekly: James Richardson's European newspaper review | Football | guardian.co.uk

[Red Nick]

Great stuff, as ever. (except for the Father Ted moment at the start)

 

Football Weekly: James Richardson's European newspaper review | Football | guardian.co.uk

 

Thanks for that love the reference to AF calling them Francos team that really wouldnt go down well

[Red Nick]

One is owned by its fans, the other has sold it's soul to the evil of capitalism.

 

One wears the mark of corrupt bankers upon its shirt, the other sports the logo of Unicef, bringing hope to poor everywhere.

 

One has the cross of Christ on its badge, the other has satan.

 

It was the ultimate good versus evil, where good won (by a long, long way!)

 

On that basis you no longer support LFC and now Support Barcelona