With all the media hypes and the mutual respect from both Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola prior to the final. The 2011 champions league final certainly did fulfilled its high expectation. So waking up from a cold Sunday morning here in Australia is worth every second of it.
The first 7-8th minute shows why Man Utd deserves to be in the final by holding and keep possessing of the ball. In fact during that period, Barcelona had problem of getting out of their own half.
However it is impossible to be able to dominate a team such as Barcelona. So as soon as Barca player had settled, they dominated the play once again and Man Utd were never really back into it.
What makes a great final is the attitude of both teams. After Pedro open the scored around the 30th minute in the first half, by slotting into the goal after he received from a brilliant low diagonal through ball from Xavi. Rooney then make a come back goal from 15 yards after he left unmarked from a counter play from the left.
Personally, i felt Man Utd couldn’t have comeback from the first goal because of the way Barca had dominated other teams throughout the season. But it just shows the mentality of this Man Utd side, which they put up a great fight.
At the end, good football wins the day. With the Messi scoring a brilliant goal from 20 yards low shot around the 50th minutes mark. Final goal comes from David Villa in the 75th minute, who had a quiet game. The game pretty much sealed then, because not only Barcelona continue to hold possession, they started toying with United defense, and had more than 17 shot on goals.
Barcelona is a deserved winner at 3-1, but Man Utd should also be congratulated for putting up a great fight, unlike the way Mourinho setup his Real Madrid team. They shouldn’t have any regrets in this match because they are playing arguing the best team in the world at the moment.
Now hopefully Barca players will take a good long holiday and comeback to play their beautiful football next year. I really look forward to see them next year, but i’m sure Liverpool will win everything by then!
Johnson