Barcelona v Manchester United – Saturday 28th May – Wembley (20:45)
Lionel Messi - Barcelona
The biggest club competition in world football will pit Spanish champions Barcelona against English champions Manchester United in a final that doesn’t get any bigger.
Barcelona won the Spanish league with two games to spare and had the luxury of resting all their first choice players in their 3-1 league win against Malaga at the weekend. Barcelona won their group with four wins, two draws and no defeats, scoring 14 goals in the process and only conceding 3. Barcelona faced Arsenal in the Round of 16 and suffered an early set-back losing the away leg 2-1 after being a goal in front. However they put that behind them at Camp Nou, winning 3-1 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate. Barcelona had an easier time in the quarter-finals, winning the home leg against Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 and then adding another goal for good measure in the away leg. The semi-finals brought Barcelona face-to-face with rivals Real Madrid and a 2-0 away win meant that the 1-1 draw at Camp Nou was enough to take them to the final. Barcelona will look to stamp their dominance on the game from the start and if they do then it will be a matter of time before a moment of brilliance from one of their stars gets them an early lead.
After a slow start in this season’s English Premiership, Manchester United showed their class to win the title in what was one of the most competitive seasons of all time. Their cup form though has been lacking, suffering defeats at the hands of lowly West Ham United in the League Cup and local rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup. Manchester United topped their group easily, also notching up four wins and two draws and suffering no defeats. In fact they only conceded one goal when they drew 1-1 with Valencia. Manchester United started the Round of 16 with a nervous goalless draw away at Marseille but two goals from the young Mexican Javier Hernández helped them to a 2-1 win at Old Trafford. The quarter-finals saw Manchester United up against English rivals Chelsea, whom they saw off with a 1-0 win away and a 2-1 win at home. Manchester United did most of the hard work in the semi-final in the first leg, winning 2-0 away at Schalke then their second string did the business winning 4-1 at Old Trafford. United’s work horses, Ji-Sung Park and Wayne Rooney, will need to show that fighting spirit that epitomises Manchester United if they are to take the game to Barcelona here.
The two teams met in the 2009 Champions League Final, and on that occasion it was the Catalonians who came out on top with goals from Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi giving Barcelona a 2-0 win. The Spanish champions have been in superb form throughout this season and with the likes of Lionel Messi and Xavi looking to break through the United defence, its difficult seeing Manchester United get even a draw. Back Barcelona.
