Barcelona 3 Manchester United 1
Pedro 27, Rooney 34, Messi 54, Villa 69
When this final kicked off, Ji-Sung Park got a tackle in and United had a good spell.
We saw 12 minutes of red devilry.
That was followed by an 82-minute masterclass.
At the start, Park nicked the ball from Dani Alves, Chicharito pinched it from Busquets, Fabio clattered Iniesta mercilessly, Park blocked a Dani Alves pass for a throw, the Mexican forced Victor Valdes to kick the ball out, Park won the ball off Messi in centrefield, Valdes had to clear from the Mexican when Pique froze, Vidic blocked a David Villa shot.
All that was pretty typical from United, who like to generate physical momentum.
But after the 12th minute they hardly got a kick, really.
After 15, Xavi showed us the shape of things to come, whipping a cross the near post, were Pedro made a clumsy connection.
After that hectic opening, Xavi, Messi and Iniesta controlled the game, United\’s midfield was swamped, Javier Hernandez was invisible, and when United squeezed narrow to defend against a possible Messi dribble, Xavi rifled a crossfield pass to the unmarked Pedro, who took one touch and scored.
Vidic hardly had a ball to head all night because Barcelona took short corners every time. He had a storming first half but was stranded when Xavi\’s pass revealed that Evra had gone AWOL, allowing Pedro to slot for 1-0 .
The same Xavi pass had found David Villa three minutes earlier but he muffed the chance. The first time Pedro switched from left to right, he scored.
Wayne Rooney got the goal back within seven minutes, although the time between the goals seemed much longer to me.
Good move after an Abidal throw, Fabio to Rooney to Giggs, who was half a yard offside, Giggs switched it sweetly square and Rooney sidefooted the ball beyond the helpless Victor Valdes from 14 yards.
Goals often change games but that one didn\’t.
Indeed, United seemed surprised to score.
At half-time I didn’t think Man United could improve, I just wondered what would happen when Giggs and Carrick ran out of legs.
Second half, Giggs and Park switched but that didn’t work because ball-chasing doesn’t work against Xavi, Messi and Iniesta, who can pass round you all night long. When Iniesta gave Messi a square pass, he scooted behind Park and whacked in a low shot from 25 yards. Vidic had become too befuddled to charge down that Messi shot before it flew low past Edwin van der Sar into the middle of his goal to make it 2-1. Good shot but the keeper was culpable.
Messi’s goal finished the game in 54 and everybody knew it, including Sir Alex.
I’ve never seen Messi celebrate like that. It’s usually a little grin and shy acceptance of the hugs and kisses. For once, Messi was manic. He shouted, punched the air, kicked a microphone, booted the advertising boards, kept on shouting. He’d never scored in England and now he had fired the winner in the biggest final of the season.
A wriggling dribble by Messi, beating sub Nani, led to David Villa making it 3-1 with a typical curler from outside the box in 69.
Amazingly, this final was so one-sided that United had no corners and no shots on target after Rooney’s equaliser.
We saw why keeper Victor Valdes is the right goalkeeper for Barcelona, just as Bruce Grobbelaar was the right keeper for Liverpool in the Eighties.
Excellent final, four good goals, no controversy. Very straightforward, really.
The world’s finest team outclassed a United side that had won the EPL by nine points. Power and muscle failed embarrassingly as Manchester’s gladiators were given the runaround by an exceptional team of small craftsmen who could have won 6-1.
Having spent the week mouthing off, Patrice Evra became a caricature of himself, like Roberto Carlos at his embarrassing worst, huffing and puffing up the flank and being caught out of position.
Pep Guardiola is clearly in charge.
He’s realistic and pragmatic and not sentimental about his older players. He obviously told his captain Carles Puyol :You\’re not playing, I need Mascherano to cover the pace of Rooney and Hernandez. When the game was over at 3-1, he brought his club captain on to lift yet another trophy.
Sir Alex got his team and his bench and his substitutions gloriously wrong, so the 56th European Cup Final was never close.
Michael Owen for the last 10 minutes when you’re 3-1 down? Please.
OK, Berbatov missed two sitters against City at Wembley, but Scholes got sent off. Berbatov wasn’t even on the bench while Scholes got ten minutes at the end. The Bulgarian could at least have held the ball up, given his midfield a breather. He couldn’t have been worse than the Mexican, who kept running offside.
The contrast in styles should not have been so extreme.
The Barcelona players often gave the ball back to the man who had just passed it to them, while United never did that. Every United pass tried to make something happen, and that was just stupid. That made Barcelona look as if they had 13 players, while United seemed to have nine.
In the end, football is about numbers, about strategies that can give you two against one, three against two, four against three.
Barcelona\’s collective artistry and intelligence is such that whenever you attack with two, they defend with three. But when they attack, they often get space, or get one against one. They can do this because they have so much skill, desire and belief.
Keep-ball is a way of life : possession, plus support, then look for a killer pass or shot. Theirs is a busy, impatient keep-ball rhythm that controls a game, slowing it down to speed it up a moment later, making passes of two yards and even two feet, while maintaining an almost constant goal-threat.
Barcelona made 772 passes against 419 and their most frequent passing combination was Messi to Xavi (31), while United’s was Ferdinand to Van der Sar (10). Barca had 22 shots against 4 by United Those stats say it all, really !
Saturday saw Xavi at his most Napoleonic, the commander of Wembley, conducting the Catalan Orchestra and Chorus.
Later on Saturday night, when I was half-watching the ITV highlights with the sound off, Barcelona reminded me of a jazz orchestra. A versatile rhythm section, a wonderful ensemble with soloists standing up one by one.
Seeing those two-touch magicians making Man United look pedestrian, making Giggs and Valencia look like journeymen, I imagined Pep Guardiola as a Catalan bandleader playing a grand piano in the technical area during every home game. I once saw Duke Ellington , a suave ambassador who smiled and bowed at the end of the show and said, “Remember, wherever you go in the world, you’ll never find anyone who loves you half as much as we do.”
That’s what 41-year old Pep should do next season. Play the piano and tell the crowds that he loves them madly.
In three seasons as a manager, he’s done everything else. Three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues, many other trophies.
As Ferran Soriano pointed out on Sky Sports News before the game, “This team is the product of 20 years work.”
Soriano is the former Barcelona director I met at Birkbeck when he gave a PowerPoint seminar on how the biggest European clubs earn their revenue.
At 5pm I had a bet on both teams to score. At 7pm, after the line-ups were announced, I was looking for a second bet. I couldn’t find one I liked, so I did the same bet again.
When Rooney equalised in 34, I said, “Thanks, Wayne.”
Looking back, the only mystery of the 2011 Champions League Final will be : How on earth was it 1-1 at half-time?
Sir Alex needs Ashley Young to replace Giggs, Modric to replace Scholes, plus a fiery, big Sandro-type to replace Carrick.