The beautiful game produces beautiful winners
Now, 24 years on, there couldn’t be a better strapline for a match report of Barcelona’s wonderful performance against Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final as they proved once and for all they have no peers.
Has there ever been a team in the history of football that plays the game this way?
Pep Guardiola’s side have the wonderful natural skills of the Brazilian greats — take a look at David Villa’s impudent goal to confirm that; in Messi they have a dribbler of such pace, balance and panache that a comparison with Diego Maradona or George Best — who graced the final at this same ground in 1968 – is not unwarranted; and to top it all they have the passing skills of the Dutch masters combined with a high-energy pressing game that has not been matched by any side in history.
United, with all their own history, all their own skills and passion — and with Wayne Rooney sweating blood for the cause — did everything in their power to try and stop them and were even level 1-1 at half-time.
But a final glance at the statistics show Barca had almost 70% possession, created a dozen chances and restricted their rivals to only one shot on target — Rooney’s 34th minute effort that equalised an opener which had been set up by the outstanding Xavi and finished sweetly by Pedro.
And afterwards Messi warned the world that Pep Guardiola’s team are hungrier than ever after confirming their place among history’s greatest sides at Wembley.
“This team is incredible,” he said. “I think today we can’t really fully appreciate what we’re doing, what we are achieving. We want to keep winning trophies — and we can keep going further and further.”
Even the modest Messi had to acknowledge the gulf in class.
“We were superior against Manchester and deserved the win. It is another cup for us and I managed to score a goal again. I saw a bit of space there, the goalkeeper came out a bit and luckily it went in. Now we’re going on holiday — after taking the cup home to our people — then we will start thinking about what we can achieve next season.”
Before that Guardiola was forced to deflect questions about his future, having been linked with the Chelsea job recently.
While he is known to be keen to avoid going stale at the Nou Camp, the local boy seems content to continue building a phenomenal legacy.
“We’re pleased with the win because of how we did it, against Manchester United, one of the greats,” he said. “We have produced something extraordinary, though, and we have four European Cups now, joining Ajax and Bayern Munich.
“We played much better than two years ago in Rome. And against a superb team that has also improved.”
As for United, they must know there is absolutely no shame in losing to a goal like Messi’s; absolutely no shame in being second best on a night when football finally found a way to forget about corruption, super-injunctions and controversies and remember what the sport is meant to be about.
At last, after everything we have been through, the people who make football beautiful are back in charge.
Van der Sar, Fabio Da Silva (Nani 69), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Carrick (Scholes 76), Giggs, Park,Rooney, Hernandez.
Valdes, Dani Alves (Puyol 88), Mascherano, Pique, Abidal, Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Villa (Keita 86), Messi, Pedro (Afellay 90).
Att: 87,695
Ref: Viktor Kassai (Hungary).
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