Manchester United should be standing tall despite Barcelona's win

If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s new-look Manchester United needed a calibration to measure how far they have come since Jose Mourinho departed then this match, despite the result, should leave them standing tall.

Eight years after Lionel Messi’s Barcelona side marked the beginning of the end of the Sir Alex Ferguson era by demolishing United 3-1 in the Champions League Final at Wembley, United’s belligerence against the current version is not to be under-estimated given where they were just six months ago.