Barca triumphs!

Warning: An EXTREME Football Post.

Yeah, you will be gonna hear or see it over n over again. FC Barcelona has won the Champions League Final over Manchester United FC.

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I went over to a friend's place to watch the match. God, when was the last time I watched a whole football match on television? LOL. I think it was all the way back when I was in Brunei! So, went over and got to watch the match on a, I roughly predict, 30+ " flat screen TV, Sony brand somemore! WALAO. Lucky ppl.

Anyways, let me have my say on the match first before my thoughts will most likely be influenced after reading news reports here n there.

First off, during the opening few minutes, I remembered Man Utd were the dominating team. Barcelona seemed to have their nerves get the better of em during that period. Lousy passes, and nervous defending. C.Ronaldo was on fire, firing in nearly all of Man Utd shot attempts. It was 5 shots attempts for Man Utd to Barca's 0 during the first 10 minutes. I was surprised as this wasn't Barca everyone knew or expected at all. LOL. With Iniesta and Xavi in midfield, wow.. hell no, this ain't gonna happen. Rmb how those 2 destroyed England's defence during their recent friendly?

Anyways, however after the 10 minutes of lacklustre performance from the Spanish giants, a sudden breakthrough came, when I guess Iniesta fed Eto'o with a short pass. One-on-one with Man Utd Fans' Player of the Year Nemanja Vidic, on a tight angle. I wasn't expecting much. However I was wrong. A nice change of direction from Eto'o left Vidic facing the wrong direction, and with lightning quick reaction poked the ball through under Van Der Sar's arms. Its Barca 1 - 0 Man Utd.

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From then on, Barca slowly picked up their rhythm and DAMN. The football they played was definitely AMAZING. Their passing game is flawless. It made the whole United team looked silly. I don't think any team could do that to United, considering how good United was this season.

Second half on, Tevez came on. I thought Man Utd had something up on their sleeves this time around. Anyone who could overlook Man Utd. They've climb back from deficits many a time this season already. So 1 goal deficit wasn't that hard eh. However, I was wrong. Barca still maintained the style of play from the first half. Sir Alex tried to add more attacking options to the team, thus midway thru' Berbatov came on. Ahh.. I honestly don't expect much from him either coz I think he's way too slow for the pace of the game. True enough, still no changes from Man Utd in the way they play. I guess the belief was starting to seep thru' those Utd players. They were starting to do more n more mistakes, letting dangerous through balls go past them, giving Messi ample space and such.

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Thus, at one instance, Xavi had the ball and crossed it in with his magical right boot. The ball was so perfect I thought I did not even think it was a defensive mistake of any sort. Messi was on the receiving end, and he beautifully headed it in, leaving Van Der Sar standing helplessly. LOL. 2 - 0 70++ minutes into the game. It was OVER. Scholes came on a bit later for Giggs, but ahh.. I feel sad for him, he's no more the same Scholes like a few yrs back anymore. He couldn't make any difference at all.

Not long later, the final whistle blew. Barca are now the new CHAMPIONS of Europe!

My thoughts on some of the players:

- Puyol the El Capitan of Barca, whose natural position is at centre-half, played really well at right-back. Rooney couldn't do much coz he's around.
- Park Ji Sung, our Asian pride was just terrible. Outmuscled, outranned, just no match.
- I guess Ronaldo had let his ego get the better of him. There were circumstances where a pass should have been a better option, but he opt to instead hang on to the ball for a wee bit longer. He took way too many shots that sort of affected his belief a bit I guess. Pass dude PASS!
- Ryan Giggs (PFA Player of the Year) was unseen too, I guess he wasn't very comfortable in that position? Im not too sure about that
- Iniesta was simply brilliant! He was like a younger Paul Scholes, dangerous in passing and good in controlling the ball too!
- Henry and Eto'o was so-so... I was happy for Henry nonetheless, he's still one of my favourite players. Had quite a number of good chances. But more importantly he has won the CL at last!

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- Pique was really good too, had quite a number of important defensive tackles.
- Silvinho, the ex-Arsenal leftback, seemed okay too! Surprisingly even thou he is already at 35! He had a couple of lousy touches thou'
- The best player on the pitch that night was definitely none other than Lionel Messi. Pure talent, his touches were simply sublime, his ability to take on multiple defenders at once mercilessly, his one touch passes. Pure class. The STAR of the night. Ronaldo please, move aside.

In conclusion, Man Utd were simply OUTPLAYED (yes outplayed! Man who would have imagined) by a definitely better Barcelona team on this night.

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To Man Utd fans, I apologize if any part of the above post has caused any emotional distress of any sort. Hahahhaaha...