Manchester United's dream of clinching back-to-back Champions League titles ended in defeat after the team was comprehensively beaten in the final by Barcelona in Rome last night.
Barcelona 2-0 Man Utd
For the first several minutes in this final United were rampant - then Samuel Eto'o scored for Barça, and Fergie's men simply disappeared. Xavi and Andres Iniesta ripped them to shreds.
Barça were definitely the superior side, they kept the ball and passed United to death. United were poor, and on the rare occasions they actually saw the ball, it was handed straight back to the opposing side. The second goal from Lionel Messi merely put United out of their misery.
So a hearty "well done" to manager Josep Guardiola for winning the Spanish league and cup as well as the Champions League for his first season in charge, and humble pie for the myopic British press who wrote Barça off. Reading some of the papers prior to the match, it appeared all United had to do was turn up and take the trophy, after all, wasn't Barça supposed to have a dodgy defence? Instead it was Guardiola instead of Fergie who had the historic night.
Furthermore, congratulations to Thierry Henry and Silvinho on winning last night. For Thiery this is an honour he has richly deserved (I only wished he won it with the Gunners back in 2006).
Finally, I seem to recall Patrice Evra boasting after United beat Arsenal in this year's Champions League semi-final: "It was 11 men against 11 babies"
What goes around, comes around, eh Patrice?
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