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What Manchester United Must Do To Knock Barcelona Off Their Perch

The obituaries being written about Manchester United’s OAPs for the last five years are now finally relevant. Gary Neville and Edwin van der Sar have retired, Paul Scholes might have by the time you read this article and Ryan Giggs is holding back the development of younger players with more long-term value to the club….

Pep Guardiola’s achievements at Barcelona are far from complete

At 40 years of age Pep Guardiola has already implemented himself into one of the greatest coaches in modern history. 29 years his senior Sir Alex Ferguson, the man who sat in the opposite dugout at Wembley on Saturday night, conceded his Manchester United team were inferior to the young pretender’s Blaugrana who put on…

The Champions League Final: or how Manchester United gave Barcelona a helping hand

Stephen O’Sullivan points out that if you’re playing the best team in the world, it’s never a good idea to make it easy for them. The Manchester United players and staff queued up last night to hail Barcelona as, amongst other things, the best team they’d ever seen; Rio Ferdinand (“they were the deserving winners”), Nemanja Vidic…

The Champions’ League Final: Five Things We Learned

Five Things we learned from Barcelona’s 3-1 trouncing of Manchester United: 1. It’s definitely now time for Sir Alex Ferguson to trust his younger players Paul Wilson has already argued this in The Guardian, and he couldn’t be more right. How is it possible that a club of United’s stature and resources can roll up…

Missed Opportunity: Manchester United Refuse to Abandon Old Principles and the Barcelona Myth Rolls On

The biggest reason why this past decade or so will be remembered as that of the Galacticos of Madrid giving way to the ‘pure’ ingenuity of Barcelona and not as Manchester United’s great European era is actually rather a small section of grass, no more than ten square metres. But it’s this little section of the pitch where the great players of the past ten years have most enjoyed playing which has hurt United time and again, whether it’s been Messi, Kaká or even Zidane.

Barcelona Overtakes Dream Team By Winning 2011 Champions League

Every Barcelona team aspires to Cruyff’s Dream Team, which won the Champions League with Pep Guardiola in the side in 1992 at Wembley Stadium. Aspire with very little hope of fully emulating. Except now, this Barcelona generation has gone one better by winning two Champions Leagues, both against Manchester United, the second fittingly enough in…

2011 Champions League Final Lineups

Dimitar Berbatov, Manchester United’s record signing and Premier League top scorer, isn’t even on the bench in the Champions League final. Otherwise it’s an adventurous Man Utd team, with the same steady lineup Sir Alex Ferguson has preferred for the recent string of big matches, with Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs in central midfield. For…

2011 Champions League Final: Word From The Managers

It is being billed as potentially the ‘best’ Champions League Final in the last decade by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson who will be hoping to avenge a Barcelona side that seemingly eased to victory in the 2009 final. Today’s event will be watched from all four corners of the world as its top…

Champions’ League Final: A Five-Point Plan for United to Beat Barcelona

With the mainstream media already whispering suggestions that Sir Alex Ferguson is considering a radicalplan for ‘if and when’ Barcelona take the lead in the Champions’ League Final this evening, it’s a wonder over a billion people are even bothering to watch. Whilst Barcelona are certainly the better ball-playing side and simply can’t be outplayed…

Chicharito Looking To Become 3rd CONCACAF Player to Play In and Win Final

Saturday’s final between Manchester United and FC Barcelona has a number of storylines. For those in the CONCACAF region one storyline that sticks out is the inclusion and impact that Mexican sensation Chicharito can make on Saturday’s championship.

While the Mexican’s ascent into stardom will receive a boost from winning the finale Saturday he’s not the first player from the CONCACAF region to play in the final. So who are the other two players who’ve taken part in the UEFA Champions League Final?