Barcelona Stuns United

May 28, 2009

Barcelona Stuns United

Barcelona raised their game and left holders Manchester United in a state of shock. Catalans scored a breathtaking 2-0 victory over United to capture their third Champions League crown. Pep Guardiola in his debut season as a coach now has won the title twice one as a player and now as a coach. At the age 38 he also became the youngest coach to take European club football’s highest honor. Barcelona showed rhythm, elegance, dominance and possession which was too much for United to handle.

champions-league The march of the Red Devils came to and end in Rome and ended there unbeaten run of 25 games in the champions league. United also came to Rome with an unbeaten record of 2 yrs in the League. United’s 38 year old goal keeper Edwin Van Der Sar had not coincided a single goal in the last 14 matches but failed to defend the post in the grand finale. Samuel Eto’o scored the first goal with the help of deflection and Lionel Messi headed the second one of a cross from Xavi in the 70th minute closing all doors for United to get back in the game.

French striker Thierry Henry whose daughter also celebrated her birthday said in a post game interview

“Finally I have won it! I have been waiting for so long for this moment,”

“The last five minutes were the longest of my life. Even if we were 2-0 up we were playing the best team in the world (referring to the world club championship title United won earlier this year).”

etoo-messi United’s coach Sir Ferguson gracefully accepted defeat and said “We started the game brightly but the goal was a killer. However, they are a better team than us. We conceded two bad goals. Our defense has been good all season but those were two shoddy goals to lose.”

	Barcelona	Manchester United
Goals scored	2	0
Total shots	11	12
Shots on target	8	2
Ball possession	51%	49%
Fouls committed	7	10
Offsides	2	5
Yellow cards	1	3
Red cards	0	0