Barcelona-Manchester United Champions League Final Reaction

Final Score: Barcelona 3 - Manchester United 1 (Barcelona's second victory over United in the Champions League Final in three years)

• As expected coming into the huge matchup, Barcelona had the majority of possession during the game. Aside from the first 10 minutes of the fixture, United struggled to keep the ball, while they couldn't keep Barcelona off the ball. There were long spills during play when United found themselves without a touch for 5 to 10 minutes. At the end of the first half, Barca had 70 percent of possession and they finished the game with about 68 percent. In the middle of the field, Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi were given way too much space for Barcelona. United was able to frustrate Barcelona in the first 10 minutes of the game because they didn't give Xavi, Iniesta, or Messi any time on the ball. However, as the game went on, Barcelona began to shred apart United in the middle of the field with combinations and clever passing.
•  Barcelona kept United on their back foot the entire game. If it wasn't for 9 great saves from Van der Sar including one in the 66th minute that he turned away after a blast from Xavi, Barcelona could have scored more than 3 goals. Barca took 22 shots and 12 on goal including a total of 18 shots from Iniesta, Xavi, Villa, and Messi. United could muster just 4 shots and only 1 on net. Unlike Barcelona who had so many chances to score throughout the match, United really didn't have any opportunities to finish aside from Rooney's goal in the 34th minute. 
•  The finishing for Barca was exquisite and clinical. The first goal came in the 27th minute from Pedro Rodriguez. Xavi carried the ball into the attacking third when Nemanja Vidic turned his head and lost Pedro on the edge of the circle. Xavi played the ball into Pedro's feet, who finished beautifully into the bottom right corner by a helpless Van der Sar. Barca came back with their second goal in the 55th minute of play. Xavi and Iniesta were exchanging passes in the middle before the ball was played to Messi, who somehow was not being marked about 25 yards out. As Messi so often does, he took a few touches to his left and finished by Van der Sar for a lovely goal into the bottom right corner. Messi's early shot from distance caught Van der Sar off his guard. Van der Sar said about the goal, "I though I was positioned well. He tends to curl it into the far post but he didn't. They are very good, you have to try and score the first goal and we didn't do that. It is not always a given." Van der Sar was positioned so he could save a curling shot from Messi into the back post, but Messi went to the short side and Van der Sar had no chance to keep the game deadlocked at 1. Barca completed the great finishing in the 70th minute when Villa slotted a beautiful goal home to seal the victory for Barca. Messi traveled into the box before losing it to United but they scuffled with the ball and lost it to Busquets. Busquets delivered a pass to Villa, who curled the ball into the upper right corner from the top of the box for a magnificent goal. Vidic said, "The goals we lost, we didn't do what we have to do to close their players down. When they have time on the ball they can make the final pass and that is what they did."
• After the game, Man United gave all the credit to Barcelona for their victory. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said, "We were beaten, there is no other way to addess the situation, by the best team. I expected us to do better but at the end of the day we were beaten by the better team. They are the best team we have ever played, they are at the peak in this cycle of their team. There wa good evidence we are a consistently good European team but we were beaten by the best team in Europe and there is no shame in that. Sometimes you come up against a far better team and tonight was one of those night... Great teams go in cycles and the cycle they [Barcelona] are in at the moment is the best in Europe, there's no question of that... they are enjoying the moment that they have just now." Manchestr United captain Nemanja vidic said after the 3-1 loss, "I think if you look at it we have never played a team in the past like Barcelona, they played good football and deserved to win... A couple of the goals were preventable but you have to give credit where it's due. They've got a system they work to and did it well. We had a game plan we though could beat them, but wasn't to be."

Here are the match highlights of the final.