UEFA Champions League Final - Manchester United vs. Barcelona
- Thread starter Robert1986
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Yeah I was in Block 528 and was row 30. Seemed to be al oad of Barca fans around me compared to Man Utd fans.
Yeah if I feel Man Utd have a chance I am going to apply for Final ticket next year. I hope getting tickets this year doesn't mean you will have less chance on getting them again
you best the fair and square without doubt - however
you have to admit that Barca's mentality would have been totally different in the first of a two -game tie compared to a final (esp given they knew their easier /home game was to come)
Of course Barca (like any team) want to win every game, but it cant be gotten away from that its completely different (and we all know how well Arsenal play in Finals....the few times they get there
)Barca deserved to win - but there were a few things that struck me regarding Friday;
1) Replace Messi with practically anyone else you care to mention and it would have been a much more even game - and I very much doubt they would have won anywhere near as clearly
2) Barca made a lot of moaning about innocious tackles, and got far more decisions than they strictly deserved.
3) It may have been harsh, but it was a Barca handball in the 2nd half (left arm was moving away /back from the players side when the ball struck - it was feasable to get the hand out of the way)
4) It was a lot of collective mistakes (Evra / Vidic for 1st goal for example) , VDS (and a few others) with a goal that was bizare in how it happened - only Villa's was really unstoppable imo
Soldato
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3) come on clutching at straws, wasn't there a similar event in the man utd box?
Leg end
Soldato
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Caporegime
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I think the fact Valencia should've picked up at least 2 yellows before finally being booked was an indication of how lenient the ref was for both sides tbh.
Caporegime
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Anyone not see Rooney on the team bus? I could see most of the major contributers like Owen, bebe etc Rio vidic but I didn't see Rooney at al? Fall out from the final?
Completely, it was ball to hand 100%.
Caporegime
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lol, it also hit Gigg's arm after hitting whichever Barca player it was, none were penalties, and Evra's arm was moving as his whole body was moving. All three players had their arms by their sides, all three were moving and none of them move their arms towards the ball after the ball was kicked by the other player.
As for moaning a lot about minor challenges, there was really only Busquets, which is to be expected, and the biggest one was when Valencia caught him with a hefty whack in the chest, it was completely accidental, it wasn't a freekick afaik, just stopped for injury.
LAstly, take Messi out and every single player massively outplayed their counterpart, simple as that, it wouldn't have been any closer. Messi didn't pass more than his team mates, score all 3 goals or set the other 2 up. Busquets coped defensively without issue except one slip, Abidal was immense, offensively and defensively, Xavi is the player that controlled the game, not Messi, Alves was more effective than usual, but helped by Evra constantly getting drawn right up to Vidic.
Man Utd lost not because of how good Barca's posession and offence was, but because of how woefully bad their posession was, how easily they gave it away and their complete inability to get around Barca's central midfield, Messi had little effect on that part of the game, and lastly, Messi did play so who cares.
Its an excellent point that Barca would have played differently against us if it wasn't a two legged game, but its also a bit daft to pretend we beat them easily, the straw man of "we were winning until RVP was sent off" was about as accurate as "at 1-1 Utd are in with a shout". Barca dominated both games so completely for the vast vast majority of the games, those goals were always coming, Arsenal had a great 20 minute spell in the second half of the first game, Barca already had a goal incorrectly dissallowed, and a bunch of other chances including a couple offsides that never were.
Song was lucky to be on the pitch(whats new) and Barca had a bunch of decisions go against them that let us get to our good spell and get the two goals, the right decisions throughout and we'd have ended up battered in both games.
I think Utd bottled it more than we did purely on the basis that Utd usually put up a fight in big games, and in that game they didn't at all. What the big shame is I think both Arsenal and Utd played really quite awful line ups, no where near their strongest squads, formations or tactics and threw the games away trying out brand new daft tactics. If Utd played their best posession player, their best passer, etc, if Arsenal played a DM who could tackle without fouling, played our posession players, I think both teams could have put on far far better performances, might not of won, probably wouldn't of, but wouldn't have been so completely outplayed.
As for moaning a lot about minor challenges, there was really only Busquets, which is to be expected, and the biggest one was when Valencia caught him with a hefty whack in the chest, it was completely accidental, it wasn't a freekick afaik, just stopped for injury.
LAstly, take Messi out and every single player massively outplayed their counterpart, simple as that, it wouldn't have been any closer. Messi didn't pass more than his team mates, score all 3 goals or set the other 2 up. Busquets coped defensively without issue except one slip, Abidal was immense, offensively and defensively, Xavi is the player that controlled the game, not Messi, Alves was more effective than usual, but helped by Evra constantly getting drawn right up to Vidic.
Man Utd lost not because of how good Barca's posession and offence was, but because of how woefully bad their posession was, how easily they gave it away and their complete inability to get around Barca's central midfield, Messi had little effect on that part of the game, and lastly, Messi did play so who cares.
Its an excellent point that Barca would have played differently against us if it wasn't a two legged game, but its also a bit daft to pretend we beat them easily, the straw man of "we were winning until RVP was sent off" was about as accurate as "at 1-1 Utd are in with a shout". Barca dominated both games so completely for the vast vast majority of the games, those goals were always coming, Arsenal had a great 20 minute spell in the second half of the first game, Barca already had a goal incorrectly dissallowed, and a bunch of other chances including a couple offsides that never were.
Song was lucky to be on the pitch(whats new) and Barca had a bunch of decisions go against them that let us get to our good spell and get the two goals, the right decisions throughout and we'd have ended up battered in both games.
I think Utd bottled it more than we did purely on the basis that Utd usually put up a fight in big games, and in that game they didn't at all. What the big shame is I think both Arsenal and Utd played really quite awful line ups, no where near their strongest squads, formations or tactics and threw the games away trying out brand new daft tactics. If Utd played their best posession player, their best passer, etc, if Arsenal played a DM who could tackle without fouling, played our posession players, I think both teams could have put on far far better performances, might not of won, probably wouldn't of, but wouldn't have been so completely outplayed.
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