In the end, it was Lionel Messi who put the finishing touch on Barcelona’s incredible season by heading in Xavi’s pin point cross into the goal – a goal that would effectively finish off Manchester United’s own hopes of winning the Champions League. And as Barcelona passed the ball around in their usual unparalleled style leaving United players chasing shadows – it just seemed like the team from Catalunya was playing football from a different planet. The fact that Barcelona were missing their first choice wing backs, had two 35 year olds as their replacements and had a central defender who had played in midfield all season absolutely didn’t matter because quite simply their midfield didn’t give United the ball. And let’s not forget that the team they were outclassing had just won the league title and had the best defensive record in the Champions league.

 It had all started so differently for Manchester United – with a flurry of chances and almost 80% complete posession in the first ten minutes of the game. Things started to go awry when Samuel Etoo scored in what was Barcelona’s first shot on goal in the tenth minute. United almost certainly never recovered from that shock and if it wasn’t for Van der Saar’s heroics and the goal post, they could have very well ended up losing the match 4-0.

Following Etoo’s goal, Barcelona just seemed to find the same composure and rhythm that has seen them score over 150 goals this season and with every passing minute a United comeback seemed less likely. On a night when Barcelona had atleast six players stepping up to the big ocassion, it was a sad indictment of United’s performance that the images that will be most remembered were there of Ronaldo losing his composure repeatedly on the left flank towards the end of the game. United quite simply missed both Darren Fletcher and Owen Hargreaves – Anderson and Carrick simply not having enough quality to put brakes on Iniesta and Xavi’s relentless passing. 

  There is no doubt that Barcelona absolutely deserved this victory, their third in European history and their first since that famous victory in Paris in 2005. Pep Guardiola’s amazing transformation of this team which had previously gone three years without winning a title will become the stuff of legend.

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Barcelona may have made it through to the Champions League final on May 27 after a heart stopping victory over Chelsea thanks to Andres Iniesta’s late late goal but it came at a price. Many neutrals have been hoping for a Manchester United versus Barcelona final and the sheer number of attacking superstars on either side will hopefully make it an entertaining one. In the first leg of the semi-final the Catalans lost Rafael Marquez for the rest of the season to injury. The Mexican centre-half is one of their most experienced defenders and the loss of the 30-year-old will be a massive blow for the Spanish side as they look to keep tabs on Manchester United’s forwards.

Clipping of the wings:

The bad news doesn’t end there for the Spanish champions elect – French left-back Eric Abidal received what was perhaps a harsh red-card for a foul on fellow Frenchman Nicolas Anelka in the second leg and he too will miss the final. The loss of Abidal will be another bitter blow for Barca with the former Lyon man one of their most experienced defenders.  If losing Marquez and Abidal wasn’t enough Barca are also going to have to line-up without the influential and brilliant right-back Dani Alves. The Brazilian schemer is one of Barca’s best players causing all kinds of problems for defenders down the right-flank. Interestingly, losing the two wing backs will also mean that United manager Alex Ferguson will not have to deploy Rooney or Park down the wings in order to negate the full backs going forward.

A makeshift defence

So Barca’s defence is going to be somewhat of a makeshift one with  Puyol and Gerard Pique in the middle with maybe midfielders filling in the left and right-back positions.  Sylvinho might probably slot in for Abidal at left back- but he has hardly featured in a big game for a long time. For a Champions League final this is not an ideal situation by any stretch of the imagination and it will be a huge task for coach Josep Guardiola to form a decent defensive unit out of what he has available.  I’m still fairly confident of a Barca victory myself, though I wouldn’t use my Champions League bet to back them with mega-money given the defensive crisis. They will probably spend most of the game attacking but midfielders like Xavi and Iniesta will have to track back more than usual to help out the defence.

With a seven point lead at the top of the table Guardiola may risk putting out the defence that will line-up against Manchester United in one of their three La Liga fixtures before the final. If he does that it should give us some indication of how they’ll cope against United. Whatever the circumstances leading up to the game I can’t wait for the final. Both teams play exciting football – Barcelona love to hog all the possession and United are probably the best in Europe at counter- attacking and we should be in for a high-tempo game full of quality, let’s hope so anyway.

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