Barcelona 0- 0 Manchester United
The two giants of the European stage met tonight at the first leg of the Semi Final of the Champions League.
After all the pre-match build up and hype surrounding the tie, the game itself was an anti-climax. Considering the attacking style of both teams; there were no goals, few chances but plenty of penalty appeals, mainly for Manchetser United.
A penalty was rewarded to United after just 2 minutes and perhaps the pressure of the occasion finally got to Ronaldo as he side footed it high and wide.
Although the whistle happy referee was determined to stop the flow of the game at every chance he got, he turned down some pretty strong penalty appeals by United. He also appeared to favour the home side and awarded every free-kick to Barca.
Barcelona dominated possession throughout the match and United saw little of the ball however these were the exact tactical manoeuvres which Sir Alex had executed, intending to keep a clean sheet but at the expense of scoring no goals either.
Barcelona looked a side lacking a cutting edge and ran out of ideas and couldn’t get passed United’s solid defence.
Paul Scholes won his 100th European cap tonight and played magnificent in midfield,
His passing accuracy and surprisingly his tackling were among his finest traits in a game which he didn’t dictate with his passing.
Ronaldo was United’s only hope of a threat as Rooney was forced out right, practically playing as a right back at times. The Portuguese prodigy and no doubt the best player in the world played alone up front and caused havoc when he could.
It was a defensive, professional and disciplined performance by United but they hardly troubled a weak Barcelona defence and must score at Old Trafford to commence to the Final in Moscow.
I must confess, European nights at Old Trafford at knock out stages are notoriously nervy and with a team like Barcelona coming to town, they may just cause an upset.
I think Sir Alex got his tactics wrong and was way too defensive, should have started with either Giggs or Nani instead of Park and played a traditional 4-4-2 attacking formation.
Hopefully come next week, Ronaldo wont live to rue that penalty miss.
FOOTBALL FRENZY - crazy chick knows her stuff. 