So I went to the European Cup Final at Wembley last night. My season attending Champions League games from a qualifier in Berne, to how I got into the Final in the front row of the Barcelona end in a seat not for sale, is a piece of writing, full of stories, I will save for another occasion. For now, I am going to concentrate on yesterday’s match, starting with a bit of perspective.
I am assuming anyone reading this doesn’t need me to outline the importance of the occasion, but suffice to say, of the many hundreds of football matches I have been to, this was up there. And while it didn’t involve my own club, it had the two clubs I admire most outside my own.
My allegiance to Barca stems from the political, enforced by Jimmy Burns’ ‘Barca: A People’s Passion’, (which I read in the late nineties), and ignited by sparkling football. They have been an exciting team since I first started watching football, by which time they had already had been touched by the hands of Rinus Michels and the first coming of Johan Cruyff in the seventies; but as I said in my last piece on ‘Moving The Goalposts’, this current side is taking the beautiful game to new levels.
When they have the ball they make the pitch as big as possible, and on the rare occasions they give the ball away, the compress the space. The approach manifests itself with their centre-backs always giving the keeper two options to pass the ball out, and two of their forwards having a starting position where they hug the touch-line; yet the movement of the whole team, and the front five in particular, is always fluid and exciting. Comfortable in possession, and with players with exceptional technical ability, they are not just the best the club side in the world at moment but are correctly recognised one of the best of all time.
Manchester United meanwhile have proved to be the best side in England for nearly twenty years now. They are alone as being an English club other than my own that I like to do well in Europe (of the teams that qualify regularly). When I grew up watching football in the eighties, Liverpool were the dominant force in England, back passing their way to league titles, mastering the art in killing time, and getting results; they had glory-hunting supporters, a fawning media and even more deferential referees. In the nineties, United turned the tide, playing football with a flair and an attacking intent, more like the Spurs team that I was lucky enough to start supporting in the early eighties.
When United celebrated their first league title in 26 years with a cracking free-kick from a 19-year old Ryan Giggs in 1993, they were a breath of fresh air, and went on to deliver domestically in the following years. As their manager has always acknowledged though, they under achieved in Europe, apart from the treble winning year in 1999, and he scrapped plans to retire in 2002, after not finishing on the high of winning the European Cup at Hamden Park, as he envisaged.
Last night was their third final in four years though, but as with the last in 2009, Barcelona outplayed them for large parts of the game, and went onto deservedly lift the trophy, leaving an image on the big screen at Wembley last night, that was similar to the one on TV screens two years ago after the final whistle, with a disconsolate Giggs and Scholes dissecting the game.
Even in his 38th year, Giggs could still walk in any English team in the country, and it was no surprise that United’s equaliser came from his assist. Time and again over twenty seasons he has been the best player for the best team in the country, and is still their most influential on the pitch. He has been easily been the best British player of his generation, and is one of the greats of all-time.
The equaliser came at a crucial time last night, because after Barcelona opened the scoring seven minutes earlier, Wayne Rooney was berating the rest of the team, who as they were regrouping at the centre circle looked like they were getting up after a count of 8 in a boxing ring. And had Barca added a second quickly, United could have been ripped apart.
United had started promisingly though. It is often forgotten that in the first ten minutes of the 2009 Final, United looked dominant, with Ronaldo taking the attack to Barca, and their tails up. The opening goal by the clinical Samuel Eto in the 10th minute changed the game dramatically, and Barca suddenly took control. They dominated for the rest of the match, and with all their attacking talent on the pitch, there was always the likelihood they would score a second, and they did, with the head of Lionel Messi.
Last night United bravely tried to press Barcelona from a higher starting point, and looked lively for the first ten minutes again. Park was breaking up play, tucking in from the left, and Carrick and Giggs looked good on the ball. They looked to me like they identified the inside left channel as area to profit from, in-between the attacking but defensively suspect Daniel Alves, and the makeshift centre-back Javier Mascherano. They tried to play both Rooney and Javier Henandez in there, but Barca stuck to their principles, and steadily began to push upfield, catching Henandez offside four times in the first 21 minutes, and after defending well for the first ten, took the game to United, by simply passing and moving as a team.
Xavi and Iniesta were at their best last night, finding angles, giving options, and both an attacking threat. And it was Xavi’s incisive pass that picked out Pedro to score the opener on inside 27 minutes, a goal that was coming as Barcelona again had taken control.
Pedro played from the left last night, and David Villa the right, a change in their positions from the last time I had watched them in the flesh, a few weeks ago in the League game away at Real Madrid. But the movement as always was fluid, and Pedro made a darting run in the inside right position, to score quickly inside Edwin Van Der Sar’s near post.
Van Der Sar has had an excellent final season for United, and while he made a few saves yesterday, it wasn’t his night. Replays of Messi’s goal showed that the ball wasn’t in the corner, although Messi’s quick feet seemed to catch both him, and the defenders in front of him, out. Like Barca’s first, the second goal was coming. The United players were out a few minutes before Barca before the second-half began, but when the whistle blew, Barca were at it straight away, winning successive corners, and playing the game almost exclusively in United’s half.
That the goal was scored by the best player in the world was fitting, and it was a pleasure to celebrate with the Barca fans, with Messi running over and looking at us in the eyes as we were celebrating after that ball hit the back of the net. An unforgettable moment.
A couple of seasons ago I went to the Wembley Cup, and while Messi didn’t play on the first day against Spurs, it was interesting just to watch him warm up, passing the ball in a triangle with team-mates, almost always with his left foot. The following day he played 45 minutes against Al Ahly, in the position that is now his own, in a central role of a front three with licence to drop off, and move anywhere.
I have now been lucky enough to see him play in the flesh a further two times since, including last night, and he is with Maradona, the best player I have seen. Unlike Maradona, it is likely he will be more popular; when the ball went over the line for his second goal in the semi-final against Real Madrid, it was hard to believe there was any non-Real Madrid true football fan who didn’t shout with joy.
After his goal last night, it seemed a matter of time before Barca scored the third, and it came from David Villa. Villa was disappointing when I saw him play at the Bernabeu in the La Liga last month, but he got the goal of the night yesterday, beautifully bending the ball in the top corner, which no keeper could have saved.
United had little options on the bench, certainly none that could reverse the red and blue tide. Nani came on for the injured Fabio, with Valencia going to right-back, an intelligent substitution, but it had no real effect. Valencia, who was lucky not to get a booking in the first-half, picked up a booking after the change, but it was by and large a clean game, and a total contrast to the as a spectacle of the semi-final, when Real Madrid’s negative, spoiling tactics failed.
After winning his first European Cup with two goals from substitute strikers in 1999, I guessed that Sir Alex Ferguson would pick both Berbatov and Owen on the bench, but news which came through on twitter that Berbatov was left out of 18, proved correct.
I remember when Berbatov left Spurs to join Man United, his “dream move”, he said he felt it was like joining The Beatles. Last night, he must have felt more like Pete Best then George Best.
Ferguson didn’t even try with Owen, knowing that there were no chances being created to be put away. Only Giggs and Rooney offered United any hope at this stage, Giggs going out on the left, with Park inside, and still looking as likely as any United player to give them a lifeline. Rooney had one great chance, almost made on his own, but he shot just over, and after that Barca looked as likely to get a fourth, as United did of making it a tense final few minutes.
Barca were worthy winners, and they could conceivably get stronger if they strengthen their squad, and as long as the manager stays. Pep Guardiola is a classy manager, and I was sure that he would bring Carlos Puyol on for the final few minutes, and he did. But there was more, and Eric Abidal going up to lift the cup will be noted when the book on Barca’s achievements in the 21st Centaury is written.
FCB are a proper team, and this side is the best example yet, that winning medals and playing attractive, attacking football, go together.
MG
MG
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| My full story of the Journey of the Champions League 2010-11, from a qualifier in Switzerland to the front row of the final via the epic series of Clasicos, is now available as a e-book from Amazon and Smashwords. |
