UEFA Champions League Final Preview

By: Ryan Noormohamed

On May 28th, the European season reaches its climax. At Wembley Stadium, in front of a potentially record-breaking TV audience, Manchester United and Barcelona will do battle once again. This time, as it was two years ago, the prize is none other than the title of "Champions of Europe 2010/2011". The finale of the world's premier club competition is now upon us.

This year, we are treated to two of the biggest names in world sports in Manchester United, newly crowned Champions of the English Premier League and now the most dominant club in English domestic football history (Liverpool still has 5 European Cups to United's 3, thus taking the European cake), and FC Barcelona, the reigning Champions of the Spanish La Liga for the past 3 years in a row, including this season, and sporting the reigning World Player of the Year in Lionel Messi.

Before I go into any sort of pre-match analysis of the game itself, however, lets go ahead and take a look at the respective club's seasons thus far:

Manchester United: English Premier League Champions 2010/2011

Mancheter United's squad 2010-2011

United have made the best of a rather dull league campaign in terms of serious competition to earn their 19th league title. Led by forwards Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, and the hotshot Mexican newcomer Javier Hernandez, they swept away all competition in Europe and their domestic league without looking like a fantastic team. Their midfield, with world class wingers such as Antonio Valencia and Nani and the evergreen Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, has outplayed the world class midfield assembled by teams such as Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester City (bar a few occasions) and as such has rightly claimed the Premier League title in a historic season for the club. Their manager, Alex Ferguson, though repeatedly in trouble with the English FA for improper conduct regarding comments about referees, has finally succeeded in knocking Liverpool off of their "F**king Perch" (his words, not mine...), and would love to take one step closer to knocking them from their fabled European perch with the club's 4th European/Champions League title.

FC Barcelona: La Liga Champions 2010/2011, Spanish Copa Del Rey Runners up 2010/2011

Barcelona Squad 2010-2011

My previous article written almost two months ago involved the truly epic series of matches between arch-rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona. Barcelona managed to come out on top with a draw in the League effectively sealing their third consecutive league title and a win over two legs in the Champions League Semi-Final put them in this game. Led by possibly the best midfield in history in Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, and Sergio Busquets, as well as reigning FIFA World Player of the Year in Lionel Messi, this team is, as I have said before, one of the greatest of all time. The manager, Pep Guardiola, showed remarkable leadership and dignity in navigating the fallout of the aforementioned series of Clasicos, in which Real Madrid publicly accused Barcelona of diving, dirty play, racial abuse, and referee bias. His team and his reputation remarkably intact, he hopes to lead Barcelona to their 3rd Champions League title in 6 years, and 4th in club history.

Who has the advantage?


In spite of what the good English-based and favoring media will tell you, this Manchester United side, though a strong one, is not nearly as strong as the previous United teams to contest the Champions League final in recent memory. This United team boasts the very same midfield and defense that was overrun by Barcelona two years ago, and, while much of the strikeforce has been replaced, its hard to suggest that Micheal Owen and Javier Hernandez are better than Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo. Likewise, this Barcelona side have shrugged off an aging Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o and replaced them with David Villa and Pedro, who to some may seem a weaker duo, but do more to bring out the best in Lionel Messi while posing a formidable threat themselves. Their midfield is almost exactly the same bar the swap of Yaya Toure (now one of the highest paid players in the world at Manchester City) for Sergio Busquets, another of their fabled youth academy graduates. 


Ferguson's United play a very direct 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, of which they will likely choose the latter, thus likely leaving Javier Hernandez on the bench in favor of an extra man such as Park Ji Sung in midfield in the hopes of stifling Barcelona's midfield.


Guardiola, however, takes little to no changes into account with regards to tactics in each game (itself either a sign of a true Champion or an arrogant fool). As sure as one can bet that the sun rises on each self-proclaimed "rapture day", one can be sure that Barcelona, bar horrendous injuries, will be playing their 4-3-3 and using their far superior passing ability to keep possession until the moment is right to attack. This Barcelona team is one of the best in the history of the game, with players such as Xavi Hernandez and Carles Puyol going for their 3rd Champions League medal to join their many domestic league and cup titles as well as their Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 winners medals, all won in the last 10 years. 


Why Barcelona Will Win:

Lionel Messi is an unstoppable force

1. United's Midfield was too weak before, and will be too weak again: The truth, and this may be hard to swallow for the United blokes out there, is that there is one and only one team built to beat Barcelona. Even when given 4 chances in 18 days, Real Madrid only beat them once. However, while the old adage is that it takes only 1 second to score a goal, and that anything can happen in one game (I, a Liverpool fan, should remember this well due to the "Miracle of Istanbul"), the advantage must lie significantly with Barcelona. Manchester United boasts almost the same starting XI that Barcelona destroyed two years ago, what is two more years to the careers of Paul Scholes, Micheal Carrick, Darren Fletcher (who didn't play 2 years ago due to suspension, and has been widely tipped to be United's secret weapon), and Ryan Giggs to the same possession game played by Barcelona? If anything, United's midfield is weaker than it was before and Barcelona's is stronger.


2. Suspensions and Injuries were worse for Barcelona in 2009 than this year in 2011: The ultimate scapegoat for most Manchester United fans was that, in 2009, Darren Fletcher was ineligible to play due to suspension. It is this blogger's opinion that Fletcher, himself a very effective box-to-box midfielder who is adept at winning the ball, will not pose enough of a threat to make a difference against Barcelona's passing game. Indeed, Barcelona's 2009 team that beat United was lacking both their starting left and right backs in Eric Abidal and Dani Alves, resulting in a rare start for the young Sergio Busquets in midfield due to the necessity of pushing Yaya Toure into the center-back position. With both players back and playing in outstanding form this year, as well as the ability to choose a first-choice XI for the game, its hard to look past Barcelona being able to play at their best. 


3. Lionel Messi: This third point is included merely because I don't believe I've mentioned the effect of Lionel Messi enough in this article. Messi, who now plays in a "false 9" role for Barca rather than his previous role on the right wing, has become the best player in the world by an extremely long shot. His incredible 52 goals and 24 assists in 54 games shows this (he had 47 goals 11 assists in 53 games last year). Messi is sure to win the FIFA World Player of the Year/Ballon D'Or award again for the 3rd consecutive year. Even against Real Madrid, whose sole goal in the 4 games seemed to be to stop Messi from scoring, he was irrepressible. Messi does not quit, Messi is not intimidated by physicality, he is an attacking machine hell-bent on creating and scoring goals. The often unimpressive pairing of Rio Ferdinand (himself getting on the wrong side of "old") and Nemanja Vidic (who has had a great season considering the different central defensive partners he's had), both of whom are positionally sound but slow as a rock, will surely once again be unable to stop Messi from doing what he does. This player is unstoppable. 


Conclusion:


It will be a dark day for Manchester United at Wembley stadium as FC Barcelona will win yet another Champions League title. However, I'd hesitate to place your bets, after all, if there is one team that can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, its Manchester United. If one needs proof, simply watch their 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich. Trailing by one goal  in 2nd half stoppage time, United scored two in quick succession from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to win in extremely unlikely circumstances. This game won't be over until every fat lady sings, but, as previously outlined, the advantage lies HEAVILY with Barcelona.