They say that football is a game of two halves – last night’s Champions League final proved to be just that. The only difference being that the first half lasted less than ten minutes. That was the time when Manchester United looked as though they could possibly win this game and get their revenge for defeat in the Rome final two years ago.
After ten minutes the relentless Barcelona machine had warmed up and from then on they outclassed their opponents in every way. They began with short passes in the midfield which kept United waiting for the return of the ball. Then they started penetrating deep into United’s backfield. After 27 minutes the inevitable happened and Pedro scored. United's defenders just stood there in amazement as if they could not believe what had just happened. To be fair, United did then come back into the game when Rooney scored a clever little goal taking them into the dressing room as equals. However even that was a goal that should have been disallowed because Giggs was clearly offside.
After half time, Barcelona came out looking even more determined and proceeded to make United look like they had no business to be there. Only Rooney seemed to be able to keep the ball for more than a few seconds before being closed down upon. One man against the might of Messi, Iniesto, Xavi and co proved to be an unequal match.
The two goals that followed sealed the result and gave Barcelona a well deserved fourth Champions League victory. They celebrated by cutting down the goal net!
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