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Don't know what say about that performance.
The makeshift defence played well, Evra contained Messi as well as anyone could and Ferdinand had a great game but not much in the way of attacking football. United stood back, defended in numbers and let Barcelona come at them, everything that pisses me off when teams do that to United.
We soaked up everything that Barcelona could throw at us and Barcelona couldn't break the defence down. But how the hell we got out of there 0-0, I don't know? Barcelona were dangerous around the box, and all those free kicks just outside the box, but I don't think Van der Sar really had any thing difficult to handle. Maybe United got lucky that some of Barcelona's players weren't match fit, but my God their finishing was atrocious.
Seemed that strategy was to stop Barcelona from scoring and hopefully score on the counter. I don't think I can remember the last time United had 35% of the possession, at times it looked like a training session with Barcelona attacking and United defending.
Not happy at all with the way they played but 0-0 with the second leg at home, is better than having to go away 0-0 for the return leg. With Vidic back and Rooney maybe a little healthy, the ties still United's to lose. Playing at home we should be more offensive minded and if Barcelona couldn't score at home against a makeshift defence, I can't see them scoring at Old Trafford.
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