The culmination of Europe’s most prized trophy will ensue tonight and the debate has developed arms and legs with regards to whether the winners will be Manchester United or FC Barcelona and we are now looking at individual winners too;Pep Guardiola or Sir Alex Ferguson, Wayne Rooney or Leo Messi.
It is hoped that it’s time for Rooney to make his mark in “the big games” and the general consensus is that whoever has the best day between Rooney and Messi will be walking with the winning team up the Wembley steps. Although many have been arguing that Messi “never does it against English opposition” and probably couldn’t survive in the Premier League (yeah, yeah), the same could be said for Wayne Rooney. The striker has failed to score against Spanish opponents in the last eight times of trying and enjoyed a sending off against Villareal in 2005. Hopefully one of them will break their duck tonight.
Whilst these two may well be pivotal to the result, I think the real battle will lie in the midfield where Sir Alex will have to make the biggest decision of the season when he decides whether to play Michael Carrick or Darren Fletcher in the heart of United’s midfield. There is no doubt that Barcelona have the best midfield unit so United will have to make up for that with hard work and Fletcher is best placed to do that. Whilst not admirable, the Scots’ judgement for making the correct cynical foul at the right time is polished and sly; he understands when to slow the game down and this is what can hurt and frustrate Barcelona. Not really a matter to be praised on but the game is played many different ways and it is no doubt an advantageous trick to have up one’s sleeve.
On the other hand, Barcelona have their own cynical players to counter-balance that. As we saw against Madrid they’re not the total-football angels many people would have you believe, they can kick and scrap when they need to. Sergio Busquets said in the week, “My team-mates appreciate that I do the dirty work and I know it is necessary.” Necessary indeed.
There is no doubt that the footage of 2009’s clash between the two has been studied relentlessly by the managers and players in order to ensure a repeat is not on the cards. Barça will be looking to get off to a stronger start and United will want more intensity from their players overall. One man who will have a will to win more than anyone is Edwin Van Der Sar. The Dutchman will be playing his last game for the club, and as a professional, and is unsurprisingly desperate to go out on a high. When asked about the match he said, “We know what we have to do, we’ve analysed [the 2009 footage] and we want to correct it.”
People are guilty of getting over-excited about Champions League finals and often they disappoint with cagey play and anxiety in the early stages but I think these two teams are both desperate to get the best start possible. They are under no illusions how advantageous an early goal can be, which would allow at least one more of the midfield players to sit deeper and concentrate on defending more.
And if that’s not enough, here’s a nice little piece of information for you; the last side to win the European Cup at Wembley was Barcelona. They defeated Sampdoria 1-0 in 1992, and who was amongst the players who walked up the Wembley steps to lift the trophy? Josep Guardiola, of course.
Possible line-ups:
Barcelona: Valdes; Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal; Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Villa, Messi.
Man U: Van der Sar; Rafael, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra; Fletcher, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Nani, Hernandez.
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3-0 Barca. Villa, Messi, Messi.
BARCELONA CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!