EPL, Premiership, English Premier League

Before the game Tevez described what he thought would be the biggest danger to Manchester United, fellow Argentinian: Lionel Messi. “Barcelona are one team with Messi but completely different without him. He is from another planet. He is very quick out of the blocks, he is a fantastic player. He is the main point of reference and the key man in the whole Barca team.” His prediction proved to be true throughout the entire game as Messi created a plethora of opportunities for Barcelona stringing 1-2’s around the United defense.

Massimo Busacca regulated this game at Camp Nou in Barcelona; which was full of fans and noise in this historic game. United started the game without Vidic who had a stomach flu. Wes Brown was a center defender with Ferdinand, Hargreaves played right fullback. Ronaldinho was still out with an injury.

It started off really exciting with a cross coming into the Barcelona box. Ronaldo jumped in to head the ball but missed slightly, Barcelona defender Milito jumped in awkwardly to head it out but the ball hit his upraised hands. A penalty kick was awarded in the 1st minute; Ronaldo took the PK but incredibly missed the goal by a foot to the right.

Lionel Messi continued to evade the United defenders darting quickly around and past them distributing the ball into and around the United Penalty area with multiple passes going a couple yards in front of the United goal. Milito consistently fouled people including Wes Brown on a corner and Cristiano Ronaldo in the midfield though the Referee didn’t call them. Barcelona dominated the first half of the game with the most possession and opportunities; United were unable to control in the midfield.

In the 28th minute Iniesta played the ball back, but Ronaldo intercepted it with a stretching touch of his foot. He raced towards it as it rolled into the penalty box, Marquez, the Barcelona defender who was on the receiving end of the pass tried to make up for Iniesta’s bad pass and got away with it. He ran towards the ball and cut off Ronaldo obstructing him and pushing him over in the box; it should have been a penalty kick especially since Marquez was the last defender but their was no call.

Ronaldo got a long pass from JS Park and ran on the Barcelona goal and was fouled by Marquez who got a yellow card in the 44th minute resulting in his temporary suspension for next game. At the end of the 1st half Barcelona had 66% possession; by the end of the game possession remained the same. With the high possession that Barcelona enjoyed they should have scored. Some speculate that it was actually Ferguson’s plan to lay back and defend against Barcelona in this game. Barcelona’s lack of goals was largely due to their inability to complete the last pass leading up to a shot. The final score was a tie at 0-0 with both teams wishing they had played better.