Man Utd v Barça (comment)
By: Sam | April 23rd, 2008
A Euclidian footballing howto was provided by Barcelona as Man Utd showed exquisite discipline to draw nil at Camp Nou.
Man of the Match: Patrice Evra, for not letting Messi get behind him.
Total football. Genius football.
United sat 8 or 9 men goal-side with no pressure or lunging, enabling Barça to pass crisply to feet in equilateral, congruent and every style of flowing triangle in the geometry book.
Despite, like, 65% ball possession, Barça hardly gave van der Sar a worry — except for a late wobbler Henry was able to body-swerve & tee up for his right foot from the left corner of the box.
We enjoyed the forward penetrating passes up to a posting Samuel Eto’o’s feet late in the match as Barça looked to be dialing in the measure. Iniesta, Messi (who came off at the hour), Xavi and Yaya Toure’ (Kolo’s brother) are delightful to watch in their efficiency.
No one with United looked pretty, but not one stepped out of Sir Alex’s conservative game-plan. The heart-muscle tightened in the 70th minute when United started to turn the screw to pressure the ball more aggressively.
Ronaldo’s early penalty miss was meaningless, part of the warm-up. Although it reflects the rot setting in: C-Ron is about to go fully off the boil because his head is so full of his own sublime skill at falling down and raising his hand. Worthless greaser. Teddy Shearingham for Ballon d’Or!
Manchester United 0 - 0 Barcelona
What a game! (I am not being facetious.)
Read Daryl’s LiveBlog of the match for the minute-by-minute.
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Comments
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Ronaldo’s miss could prove pretty vital though in the scheme of things. What if its a 1-1 draw at OT?
Its quite hard to pick a Man of the Match. No Man United player got forward well, and I think Rio was thier best player, but Barca were the better side so would wanna give it to one of thier boys. Maybe Xavi? Or Abidal who was good.
It was really a warm up to next week wasn’t it?
Posted from
United Kingdom
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MOTM? Yaya, baby. All day. The middle was CLOSED. Remember how Man U always raises so much hell up the middle? Not today. Truly awesome.
And cheater’s proof on Panty Boy’s penalty miss. Harsh call on Milito. The ball played him rather than the other way around. Good thing, because Valdes decided to go for some Barca Chips when Ronaldo struck the ball.
I admit it. I screamed “Bitch” when he missed the penalty. How often does he sit on the ground, waving his hands as if directing the Prarie Dog Philharmonic? Somebody fill me in on that one.
Must say that I was not expecting 0-0, and it shouldn’t have been. We got petulant, slow off the mark Eto’o today. Henry came in too late to really affect anything because by that time, Man U were playing for the draw.
Posted from
United States -
I did think Yaya was very good, but I don’t think he was pressed that much by the United front line, who did very little - except Ronaldo who seemed to work hard only to constantly try and win a penalty.
I agree with you on the harsh call - its only because the ball has been flicked on by Ronaldo (accidently) directly into Milito’s hands that its a handball. Its one of those where the ref feels he sort of has to give it, even though its not really a pen.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
They chickened out. They got The Yaya Stare, and that was that. Lucky for Man U that Eto’o was shit today. I told Rijkaard to start Henry, but he didn’t listen. Serves him right. I wanted a Messi/Henry/Iniesta attack with a Deco/Xavi/Yaya midfield. He gave me that, but the poor play of Eto’o killed us. Did you see the “Uh, oh….” looks from the Man U lads when Henry came in?
Not winning that one might come back to haunt us. Man U will be much better at home and thankfully, with everything to play for, we’ll see the wide-open, flowing match we hoped for today. So Man U won’t park the bus in front of the goal.
Posted from
United States -
“Man of the Match: Patrice Evra, for not letting Messi get behind him.”
Unless you count the brilliant rainbow move Messi put on him in the first half. Though Messi quickly squandered it, he made Evra look foolish.
Posted from
United States -
What I loved about that bit of skill from L’il Leo was that he bought it down on his knee first. Absolutely class.
And yeah Man United will attack at home, and Barca pretty much have to. So its gonna be amazing.
I have a feeling it might be a score draw.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Jon, that move was pretty slick. But the gates were down. Man U were very disciplined on defense, and with nobody crashing the box us, we helped them out on that one time and again.
Posted from
United States -
Barca was not really productive despite the huge possession difference. Manu showed us that it is not only their attacking machine that is brilliant. They can pretty much give the ball away and play a good game without it. They have been my favorite to win it all this season, and they still are.
Posted from
United States
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