Barcelona vs. Manchester United

So excited for this. :D

I had my United mascot over last Sunday for Blackpool and we done good so she's agreed to do the same on Saturday. Fingers crossed. :)
 
championo said:
I heard they will announce on Wednesday.


Errrm scratch that, it is Nicola Rizzoli
rizzoli.jpg

My source is legit I think

He is the dude who sent off Rafael in the Bayern match. We have to be careful with him
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I remember him. Gives the impression he's the sort of ref who'll fall hook line and sinker for all Barca's face clutching tricks.

Poor choice by UEFA...hmm, maybe Mourinho was right after all.
 
UCL Final 2005: Liverpool V AC Milan - Liverpool won

UCL Final 2007: AC Milan V Liverpool - AC Milan won

UCL Final 2009: Barcelona V Man United - Barcelona won

UCL Final 2011: Barcelona V Man United - ???
 
RDCR07 said:
UCL Final 2005: Liverpool V AC Milan - Liverpool won

UCL Final 2007: AC Milan V Liverpool - AC Milan won

UCL Final 2009: Barcelona V Man United - Barcelona won

UCL Final 2011: Barcelona V Man United - ???
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I see the pattern there... The home team wins.


Game over then :(
 
By the way VidaRed, brilliant OP!

You did a good job too AAO with all the badges but you were a match too soon.
 
3 fecking days, woke up 3 times dreaming about the CL final, surely not healthy for a 30 year old.
 
SharkyMcShark said:
We had him at some point during the knockouts did we not?
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No, you might be thinking about the Arsenal -Barca first leg. He showed 6 yellow cards, 4 to Arsenal. To be fair, I must add that the fourth was to Arshavin for taking off his shirt after scoring late.

Also this will be his third Barca game of the season. Don't know if that is any relevant.
 
--------------VDS--------------
Da Silva----Rio---Vidic------Evra
Valencia--Carrick--Giggs-----Park
-------------Rooney------------
------------Chicharito-----------

Subs: PIG, O'Shea, Smalling, Anderson, Nani, Berbatov, Owen.

Sadly no place for Scholes, as I believe we could do with two strikers on the bench in case. If you're going to include Scholes in the squad, who do you leave out - Anderson? Nani? Owen?

It's very hard in cases like this as you're always going to disappoint players who have worked hard all season. I said I think we missed Fletch in the 2009 final, but this time around with his illness and all, I don't think he should start if he still isn't 100% fit, and I doubt whether he'd even make the bench TBH.
 
I think it's such a shame Fletcher is going to miss a 2nd consecutive Champions League final. He's clearly nowhere near fit enough to participate. He probably won't even make the bench.

IMO there are 9 definite starters which are; VDS, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Giggs, Valencia, Park and Rooney.

That leaves right back up for grabs between Rafael, Fabio, O'Shea and then the decision of whether to play Hernandez or an extra body in midfield.

Does the fact Scholes only got 30mins last night mean anything? I really don't know.

Personally I would go with the side that beat Chelsea as that can be either 442/4231 or even a 451.
 
cw1984 said:
I think it's such a shame Fletcher is going to miss a 2nd consecutive Champions League final. He's clearly nowhere near fit enough to participate. He probably won't even make the bench.

IMO there are 9 definite starters which are; VDS, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Giggs, Valencia, Park and Rooney.

That leaves right back up for grabs between Rafael, Fabio, O'Shea and then the decision of whether to play Hernandez or an extra body in midfield.

Does the fact Scholes only got 30mins last night mean anything? I really don't know.

Personally I would go with the side that beat Chelsea as that can be either 442/4231 or even a 451.
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For me, it's not a question even. Sir Alex will pick Hernandez, nearly certain. 10 guarenteed and then there's the call of who will play right back.
 
United Fan 101 said:
For me, it's not a question even. Sir Alex will pick Hernandez, nearly certain. 10 guarenteed and then there's the call of who will play right back.
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I hope you're right but Scholes only getting 30mins last night has made me think again.
 
cw1984 said:
I hope you're right but Scholes only getting 30mins last night has made me think again.
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It's time to finally give him a chance at his natural right-back position, we've stunted his development horribly.
 
cw1984 said:
I hope you're right but Scholes only getting 30mins last night has made me think again.
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I think it's more to do with the fact he didn't want Scholes to play 90 minutes and then have to back up at Wembley, possibly having to play another 60 minutes (if it goes the stretch), and as we know Scholes is used sparingly. Sir Alex has always been one to cover all variables, and that's about the brunt of it, in my opinion.

Nothing in it.

Rest easy. :)
 
VidaRed said:
fCL29.png
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JZbpA.png

Wembley Stadium, London
Saturday 28th May 2011
KO - 19:45 BST
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4NRgl.jpg


Route to the Final
Barcelona
Group Stages

Barcelona 5 - 1 Panathinaikos
Rubin 1 - 1 Barcelona
Barcelona 2 - 0 København
København 1 - 1 Barcelona
Panathinaikos 0 - 3 Barcelona
Barcelona 2 - 0 Rubin

Round of 16

Arsenal 2 - 1 Barcelona
Barcelona 3 - 1 Arsenal

Barcelona wins 4-3 on aggregate

Quarter Finals

Barcelona 5 - 1 Shakhtar Donetsk
Shakhtar Donetsk 0 - 1 Barcelona

Barcelona wins 6-1 on aggregate

Semi Finals

Real Madrid 0 - 2 Barcelona
Barcelona 1 - 1 Real Madrid

Barcelona wins 3-1 on aggregate

Manchester United
Group Stages

Manchester United 0 - 0 Rangers
Valencia 0 - 1 Manchester United
Manchester United 1 - 0 Bursaspor
Bursaspor 0 - 3 Manchester United
Rangers 0 - 1 Manchester United
Manchester United 1 - 1 Valencia

Round of 16

Marseille 0 - 0 Manchester United
Manchester United 2 - 1 Marseille

Manchester wins 2-1 on aggregate

Quarter Finals

Chelsea 0 - 1 Manchester United
Manchester United 2 - 1 Chelsea

Manchester wins 3-1 on aggregate

Semi Finals

Schalke 0 - 2 Manchester United
Manchester United 4 - 1 Schalke

Manchester wins 6-2 on aggregate

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Hooray - VidaRed is back. Now we can get on with this thread
 
I like the way Mourinho planned for his 1st leg CL semi in terms of breaking the game up into phases. Obviously he lost but that was due to the unfair sending off. Its well known that against good teams, Barcelona are at thier least effective in the last 20 mins (as Mourinho called it, the 3rd phase of the game). As long as we are still in touching distance by then, then we can win.

Perhaps for that reason, Hernandez will not start and be kept for that phase of the game as by then with Barcelona's midfield and defence will be tiring and his lightening fast paced runs will create loads of space for our midfield playmakers to exploit. Perfect time to introduce Scholes too.

But the again, Id like Hernandez to start as he gives us an outlet and some respite from the expected domination is possession Barcelona are likely to get.

I have a feeling it will be a goal fest. 3-1 or 3-2 either way. Obvious loyalties aside, I think its too close to call. All this bull about us going into the game as underdogs is crap ..... we just won our domestic league by 9 points, this is our 3rd final in 4 years and we have the worlds greatest and most experienced CL manager alive today at our helm - we go in to this game on merit as equals.

I'll go for 3-2 to us, with Berbatov writing his name into United folklore with an 85+ min winner.


VDS
JOS Vidic, Ferdinand Evra
Giggs Carrick Park
Valencia Rooney
Hernandez

same side will alternate into 4411 when we attack.

Tactics will dominate a cagey first half which Barcelona will win and lead 2-1 - we will see little of the ball. It will turn into a free flowing heavyweight punch out for the last 30 mins when we will just have to go for it.

Thats when our superior fitness, famed counter attacking skills and never say die attitude will take over - Rooney with the equaliser on 80 mins and Berbatov coming on like Ole and scoring the winner with just a few minutes to go. And then it all goes bonkers.
 
This is the one. :devil:

Van der Sar
Fabio - Ferdinand - Vidic - Evra
Carrick - Giggs
Valencia - Rooney - Park
Chicharito​
Park to tuck in, when Barca are in possession and make it a three-man midfield with Rooney dropping to the left.

This is the team that got us where we are now and that will be the team that will lead us to glory.
 
Jaap said:
Park to tuck in, when Barca are in possession and make it a three-man midfield with Rooney dropping to the left.
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The problem with that is Rooney would end up tracking Alves into our left back area.

Keep Rooney central and have Park do the tracking back.
 
cw1984 said:
The problem with that is Rooney would end up tracking Alves into our left back area.

Keep Rooney central and have Park do the tracking back.
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Yeah, I'd agree with that. Although I also have a feeling that we might stick Valencia on the left wing at some point for the first time. Since Alves will bomb forward, Valencia can tear them up (though he'll have to keep cutting inside). Obviously, he'll be on Puyol or Abidal for most of the game to test them at left back.

van der Sar
Fábio Ferdinand Vidic Evra
Carrick Giggs
Valencia Rooney Park
Hernandez
--
Kuszczak; O'Shea; Fletcher, Anderson, Scholes, Nani; Berbatov​

Bench is difficult. Rafael, Smalling, and Owen all have good shouts at getting on there as well. I think it'd be worth going with the idea that we wouldn't have to sub off any of our defenders, so just stick O'Shea on the bench in case we do as he can play anywhere. I can see Fletcher or Anderson starting, but it's honestly going to be in place of Hernandez if they do.

2-2. United win on penalties when it starts raining :P
 
R_Nick said:
VDS
Rafael Rio Vidic Evra
Valencia Carrick Giggs Park
Rooney
Hernandez​

take it to them.
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My team too.

cw1984 said:
The problem with that is Rooney would end up tracking Alves into our left back area.

Keep Rooney central and have Park do the tracking back.
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I agree.

I'm sure it'll be Rooney dropping back and attaching himself to Sergio Busquets as best he can. Rooney has done it to great effect in the second half of the season so I'm not sure changing it now would be a good idea.

By doing that it always likely means Rooney will be in a position to influence the game when we do get the ball back. Having him out on the left will only isolate Rooney and he's likely to not have an influence on the game.

If we are to win I think Rooney has to put in a superb performance, something he's not done in the two finals he's played in.

Third time lucky...?
 
sammsky1 said:
I like the way Mourinho planned for his 1st leg CK semi. Obviously he lost but that was due to the unfair sending off. Barcelona are at thier least effective in the last 20 mins (as Mourinho called it, the third phase of the game).

As long as we are still in touching distance by then, then we can win. Perhaps for that reason, Hernandez will not start and be kept for that pahse as by then with barcelona's midfield and defence tiring, his fast paced runs will create loads of space for us to exploit.

But the again, Id like Hernandez to start as he gives us an outlet and some respite from the expected domination is possession Barcelona are likely to get.

I have a feeling it will be a goal fest. 3-1 or 3-2 either way. Obvious loyalties aside, I think its too close to call. All this bull about us going into the game as underdogs is crap ..... we just won our domestic league by 9 points, this is our 3rd final in 4 years and we have the worlds greatest and most experienced CL manager alive today at our helm - we go in to this game on merit as equals.

I'll go for 3-2 to us, with Berbatov writing his name into United folklore with an 85+ min winner.


VDS
JOS Vidic, Ferdinand Evra
Giggs Carrick Park
Valencia Rooney
Hernandez

same side will alternate into 4411 when we attack.

Tactics will dominate a cagey first half which Barcelona will win - we will see little of the ball. it will turn into a free flowing heavyweight punch out in the last 30 mins when we will be losing 2-1 and so just have to go for it.

Thats when our superior fitness, famed counter attacking skills and never say die attitude will take over - Rooney with the equaliser on 80 mins and Berbatov coming on like Ole and scoring the winner with just a few minutes to go.
Click to expand...

team & tictacs
 
Champions League final 2011: Manchester United determined to avoid mistakes of two years ago

Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola both have some tricky selection decisions to make for the final.

By Alan Smith 6:20AM BST 25 May 2011



There is a real determination in the United camp that they are not going to make the same mistake again, that they won’t pick players with too little match practice to face Barcelona in Saturday’s Champions League final. Sir Alex Ferguson and his coaches haven’t forgotten the error that contributed to their downfall in the final two years ago. Anderson, for example, hadn’t seen much action leading up to that Rome final, while Rio Ferdinand hadn’t kicked a ball since the semi-final second leg at Arsenal a full three weeks before.

As a result, neither was in the best physical condition for such a huge occasion and Pep Guardiola’s brilliant side took full advantage. The Catalans, of course, could easily prevail again should Lionel Messi and friends hit top form at Wembley. No side in the world are going to stop this lot if they click into gear the way that they can. Nevertheless, their job will be made a lot harder if United trust in players fully up to speed, players who got them to this stage as well as over the line in the Premier League.

Easy decisions for Ferguson then? Well, not really. It’s never straightforward for any manager when it comes to picking a side and a system to face Barcelona. Jose Mourinho proved that conclusively enough when he tried to be too clever in this year’s semi-final, Real Madrid adopting incredibly negative tactics at the Bernabéu. A fine balance is needed, then, between attack and defence, between nullifying Barca and presenting a threat yourself. This is where Ferguson must get it right as he weighs up one or two options.

His make-up in midfield:
Due to the reasons above, it doesn’t bode well for Darren Fletcher, who sadly missed out in Rome through suspension. Fletcher might have played the full 90 minutes against Blackpool on Sunday but that was his first start since being sidelined for two months with a nasty virus. So, as much as Ferguson admires his fellow Scot, a lad he has habitually banked on for the big games, this dogged midfielder surely can’t be ready for a match of this intensity. Mind you, will Ryan Giggs be OK to partner Michael Carrick? This combination has worked brilliantly in Europe but, for obvious reasons, Ferguson must decide whether Giggs is in a fit mental state. If not, Anderson’s energy could get the vote.


Who to play at right-back?
Fabio has been awarded the gig for all the big games lately, having seemingly moved ahead of his twin brother, Rafael. In addition, there is John O’Shea to consider for a position that becomes vital against the Blaugrana. With Pedro, David Villa and Messi taking it in turns to attack down that flank, United’s right-back must keep talking throughout to stay in touch with his fellow defenders. And it would help if he’s quick and sharp on the turn to keep track of the movement that makes many dizzy.
Barcelona

If Ferguson has decisions to make, so does Guardiola, although maybe to a lesser extent. We can all take a stab at Barca’s front six. For most of this season, the midfield and attack have picked themselves. It isn’t quite so straightforward at the back, though, where Carles Puyol’s absence through injury and Eric Abidal’s health problems have recently forced Guardiola to readjust.


Who partners Gerard Pique?
If he wants to, Guardiola could reinstate Puyol alongside Pique rather than asking Barca’s beast of a captain to fill in at left-back, as he did in both legs of the semi-final. Abidal, after all, could return to that slot, having mercifully returned to the fold after undergoing surgery on a liver tumour. Maxwell and Adriano could also play at left-back. Yet many believe that Javier Mascherano will stay in central defence and, if that proves to be true, maybe Guardiola fancies Mascherano’s extra mobility to cope with the lightning pace of Javier Hernández. Puyol has been hampered by recent knocks and, at 33, might not be in the best shape to track Chicarito. It would certainly be a big call considering Mascherano is more comfortable as a midfield anchorman.


Talking of which:
Sergio Busquets probably stands at the head of the queue for the holding role, with Seydou Keita also hoping to get the nod. It’s an important area, too, seeing as Wayne Rooney will drop in there when United lose possession.
 
I love this article

Sarah Crompton: Sir Alex Ferguson may be cantankerous but he's a family man to his core.


I love Alex Ferguson. I recognise that only a Manchester United fan could write that sentence; indeed the normal four-letter word usually appended to his name on Twitter is considerably less flattering.

By Sarah Crompton 25 May 2011


But I hope that even some neutrals might recognise that there is something admirable about this difficult and driven man. He is 70 this year, yet the smile on his face this Sunday, as his team celebrated the clinching of their 19th league title, was as broad as that splitting the jaws of 22-year-old Javier Hernández, marking his first.

I can't imagine that in five decades' time, the Little Pea will still be standing on the touchline, exhorting his team onwards, shouting, and cheering in an attempt to win even more glory, even more renown. This kind of ambition is exceptional – even frightening.

At an age when most men are contemplating taking up carpentry or pottering quietly round the local golf course, Ferguson is plotting the means of taking down Barcelona in the Champions League final on the one hand, while on the other dealing with the fallout from the fact that Ryan Giggs is at the centre of a maelstrom which will redefine the relationship between the judiciary, parliament and the press – and may change the course of British legal history.

Most of us wouldn't have the appetite or ability to deal with even half of that equation; Ferguson's stress levels must be somewhere off the scale.

So he is remarkable by any reckoning. But he is also the last survivor of another era, one where managers were judged by more than their ability to deliver instant success. I remember Ferguson arriving at United in a blaze of anticipation. I also remember the long, long wait for him to have any real effect.

It was four years before Manchester United won the FA Cup, years in which big-money signings and youth nurturing did nothing to improve United's fortunes. Arsenal and Liverpool continued to dominate the league; in the current climate, he would have been lucky to survive a 5-1 defeat by Manchester City in the 1989-90 season. Yet, according to his son Darren, quoted in Patrick Barclay's biography Football – Bloody Hell, that night Ferguson went home and just laughed "not because he didn't care but because it was just one of those things that happen in football, things you don't see coming and can't do much to avert".

That kind of resilience must have seen him through both the lean years and the great ones, both bringing their own share of problems. But the story which places Ferguson at the heart of his real family is also a reminder of the other old-fashioned quality of Ferguson's managerial style: his absolute paterfamilias authority amid the family of the team he has created.

I always wonder what would happen if I ran my home the way Ferguson runs United. Goodness knows I have tried. The hairdryer treatment is often applied to teenagers who won't get out of bed in time for school. I've been known to wave my arms and scream in order to get homework done. A lot of time has been put into youth development, and a fair amount into hours of training on various pitches.

I can't actually put my sons on the transfer market when they displease me, as Ferguson famously did with Jaap Stam – and to be honest, I rather fail at expressing the parental disapproval of fashion trends that he displayed in his treatment of David Beckham.

In some respects, of course, Ferguson's behaviour is flawed. His lack of respect for authority, which is the flip side of his absolute self-belief, is not something I would ever wish to emulate – or inculcate to my sons.
But as the nurturing of his youth teams proves, he is an older man who believes in the next generation. His success springs from his love for his team and for the game they play – and his absolute loyalty both to them and to his principles. That makes him cantankerous and unbending. But it also makes him a model of the supportive parent.
According to Barclay, this reflects the fact that Ferguson himself is driven to succeed by his respect for his own father and his desire to please him.

Whether you believe that or not, the idea that those family values lie at the heart of what he has achieved, is surely worthy of applause – whatever team you support.
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I think Lineker's take is not too far off the mark.
But, if we play our best game of the season then we can win. simple :D
 
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