Thetownend.com

Who do we want to win tonight?    Not that botherd really but the English man in me says United but I fuckin hate them so it has got to be Bara I reckon

I'm not a big fan of Man Utd, but national pride comes first. I still remember celebrating like made when they beat the Germans before realising I didn't actually like Man Utd that much either. Got a feeling they're gonna do it though, playing at Wembley pretty much gives them home advantage.

Got a cheeky fiver on Villa first scorer 3-2 to Barca.

You little scamp, you.

I hope United beat johnny foreigner. Hernandez to score the winner ;)

2-1 united, with the wembley backing

This amused me. I don't know if it was intentional, I hope so.

I thought ;) was a give away.

Believe it or not, I didn't even notice the bright yellow winking smiley.

I'm off for a lie down.

.....as long as the game's the winner.......

Berbatov has been dropped full stop

I want 90/120 minutes of petulance and downright anarchy.

2-0 to barca.
united deffo have a decent chance though, if they can get at their back 4(they'll need to get the ball first though :D )

Mascherano at centre half...United to win.

Actually quite looking forward to this. Just hope for a good game

Abidal has made a quite remarkable recovery

im 99% sure it dont move, BUT why does the roof always looked closed at wembly on tv :hmmm:

liking the start to this. high tempo

Barca look shaky in the centre of defence...

Barca going through the gears, starting to dominate

1-0 Barca. Deserved.

they are taking the piss now.just so good

Being helped by a terrible midfield though Arriba.

1-1 Rooney

Ooooh a bit of interest!

Great finish

Goooooooooooal Messi.

in a pub with a load of United Arm chairs. Come on Barca !!

what a team!

Boom

they are just different class.even when they lose the ball they get it straight back.they make top players like utds look ordinary.

Too easy in the end. Thought before the game that the only player that could trouble Barca would be Nani, shame he didn't start. Yep they are different class, Messi is probably the best player I have ever seen without a doubt

Sorry

I'm just in a belligerent mood.

Last year I watch Swindon Town comprehensively out-muscled and consequently outplayed by Millwall. I held my hands up, sometimes the opposition are too good.

First 10 minutes aside, the Champions of England were even more comprehensively outplayed by Barcelona. The movement, energy and skill of Barcelona was supreme. This Barcelona team is already one of, if not THE the all time great teams. There will be not doubt about that should in terms of trophies won should the team stay together for a few more seasons.

For United, they need a serious midfield overhaul. Carrick flatters to deceive. Giggs is nearly past it. Fletcher, Park and Valencia may well be up to it domestically, but get found out on the world stage.

Well played Barca.

Now back to the proper matter of playoff footy.

barca were just too good, they constantly closed man u down, and were so quick in doing so, they didnt give them a second on the ball and kept forcing errors, man u were quite the opposite and gave barca too much time on the ball.

in the end, utd were out classed.

Giggs must be older than the moon by now.

Aside from the skill what got me was that United are an excellent unit.  United click into place and work for one another but that Barca side is almost telepathic.  The movement and understanding on and off the ball is beyond anything I have seen before. 

Just goes to show how much hype and crap comes out of the Premier League and their PR team..

Selling it as the 'Best in the  World' and 'Everybody should play in the Premiership'!!   The players are only here for the money it takes to get them here and they say what their agents tell them to say in order to get a contract.

When the 'Best League' or  'Best National Team' capable of winning everything comes up aginst other European sides we are shown in our true light.

SECOND BEST ON A GOOD DAY!!!

The problem for English teams in Europe when they come up against the very best, is that they aren't used to having to chase the ball around for most of the 90 mins.

When United gave the ball away (which they did all too often), they then had to spend the next 5 mins watching Barcelona pass it around. When they did get it back, they gave it away again all too quickly.

Now in Domestic Football, they don't have the same problem, as the opposition give the ball away all too easily as well.

The other thing which is nice to see with Barcelona, is that not all footballers have to be 6ft plus & built like an Olympic Athlete to play football. If you get enough players that can pass & move the ball around you can still be a great team.

i don't think you can blame utds players,or the premier league.barca are just off the scale of every other team.they destroyed madrid in the semi, and would have destroyed whoever they met in the final.
their movement is impossible to deal with.the centre halves end up putting crosses in from the flanks for example.the only way to beat them is if they have an off day,or you have a better pass and move 90 mins than them.getting in their faces doesn't work.

i thought rooney showed his class to be fair to him.he could fit in their side

You really think Rooney showed class?

Yes his goal was good. But if you watched his body language and reactions he started to behave like a spoilt kid again.  He does it evey time things don't go his way.. He did it in the World Cup and we all know what a failure he was there!!

It's one of his weaknesses, don't let things go all his own way and he behaves like a kid.. Teams know that he reacts like tis and uses it againat him.. He either plays totally disinterested or get booked or walks!!

And what happened to Berbatov?  Not even on the bench!  If he wasn't injured that was surely a mistake by Sir AF

Heard a report that he stormed out of Wembley before the game even started, if that's true i think we know his future doesnt exist at OT anymore.

Enjoyed seeing the men beat the boys last night, especially when watching in a pub full of United fans who would need a sat nav to get to Manchester.

pure pleasure to watch the Barca performance last night.
always short accurate passes and always someone moving into space to take it on - when Utd had the ball they were pressed so intensely that they ended up losing the ball fairly rapidly.
I thought Utd defended pretty well - Vidic was very good and Rooney did look dangerous on the few occasions he had a look-in.  But players like Carrick, Valencia and Herndandez were just totally unable to get into the match.
Took me back to watching Cruyff's Ajax as a kid, when they played a type of football off the scale of other teams in their day.  (and due to the Cruyff connection I've always followed Barca too, so pleased they put one over Man U)

Always great to see Manure and that prick Fergie on the losing side. You have to admire Barca though. They are just pure class and a level above any other club in the world.

I watched it in the Woodlands Edge and was genuinely surprised at how many people were supporting Barca. Prob not far off a 50/50 split. I kow there are a lot of Man Utd haters out there, but personally I think it's a bloody shame when people are support ing a Spanish side over an English one. I hate Chelsea, but would still have supported them had it been them in the final.

And even when they did win the tropy in '99 and '08, they shouldn't have won it. Bayern were the better side in '99 bar the last few minutes and if John Terry didn't slip taking the pen in '08, Fergie's record in CL finals would've been Played 4 Lost 4.

Same here

You should be sorry, you have completely forgotten that it's Saturday night, and as such I would have been in the process of consuming as much San Miguel as possible. I think that excuses me  ;)  It does in my book anyhow

An English side? Doesn't exist in the premiership.
I was willing Barca to win, not because I hat Man Utd, but because I hate all the plastic, shirt wearing cunts that were crowding my local.

How I laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

I agree, the top PL teams aren't English any more.  they're multi-national teams based in England. very few top PL teams are UK owned now too.
Historically, I would have always supported an English league team in European competition but in many cases these days I'm fairly neutral and I don't have any particular affinity to any of the PL teams playing in Europe.
I wanted Barca to win last night because I admire their class of football, I've followed them since the days of Cruyff and my brother has always supported ManU

Remember when Beckham got sent off when playing for England and they lost to Argentina in the WC (the game where Owen scored a belter)? After that Beckham got some banter from opposing PL fans and Manure fans responded by waving Argentina flags, singing anti-England songs etc. I think I'm right in saying Utd is considered a fairly ant-English club.

Notice when England are playing an international there seems to be very few flags with Man U on them. In fact it seems lower league names are much more prevalent!

Anyhow, I was supporting Barca - mostly 'cause I hate the plastics too.

Jonah 

I went to a wedding reception las night and the groom is a man utd fan.

He wasnt very impressed when i said "your days gone from bad to worse hasnt it"

:D

Oh Tans you are a card.

How many PL clubs have been in the final over the last decade?  6 of the last 7 finals have had at least one PL club competing...

Don't let the fact that possibly the greatest ever club side outplayed our champions to a 3-1 win get in the way of the truth.  Spurs - yes Spurs - hammered last seasons CL winners this term and if it wasn't for RVP's ridiculous sending off against Barca they may not have even got through the quarters.

The prem is the best league in the world because of the distribution of talent throughout, of course Barca would win the prem hypothetically speaking but only Real would get close to top four finish out of the rest, the rest of the spanish league teams would struggle to finish above 8th or 9th.

One good team does not make a better league...

Great post Tom.

Tom makes a good point. Spain is rather like Scotland in the respect that there are generally just two teams that contest the league, the rest are also rans, although I imagine that the technical differences between the two leagues is probably immense. Think I'm right in saying Real and Barca also negotiate their own TV deals, screw the rest of em. I guess we are lucky in the UK as in the top flight it can be any one of four, soon to be five perhaps that have the financial clout to win the league.
From the Championship down in the UK you just can't call it, although the teams relegated from the top tier have a distinct advantage in the way of financial clout, it still chucks up a few surprises. This is what for me makes the lower leagues so special in the UK, it's never boring and predictable

When they step it up a gear no one can keep with them, one of the all time great sides we're witnessing at the moment.

Also not seen it mentioned, but fair fucking play to Barcelona for giving Abidal the armband at the end and letting him lift the trophy, two months after he had a tumour removed from his liver. Very classy gesture imo.

Class-the operative word LR.United dont have any off the pitch and in world terms little on it.Quote of the day "we got caught out a couple of times" (Rio Ferdinand)-what a prick!

Yeah - That was the only difference between the teams - a couple of mistakes.

Whatever you say Rio ::)

Unfortunately for many Barca socios, the club has shown a distinct lack of class, in taking the corrupt Qatari $ and putting it's name on the shirt....in view of what is happening with FIFA right now, a very bad piece of timing and PR.

I would like to think the Mes que un club, will see this not happen