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Barcelona beats Manchester United in the Champions League Final

28 May 2009

Barcelona celebrates in the Champions League final

It was a night never to forget at the Stadio Olimpico yesterday in Rome, as Barcelona defeated defending champions Manchester United, in the Champions League final.

Manchester United started the match pretty strongly with Ronaldo making a free kick just after a minute, which almost flew past Valdes. Cristiano Ronaldo tried his luck again in the 7th minute, shooting from 35 yards; but unfortunately, his firing wasnâ€™t centered enough to cross the goal line.

The Portuguese winger then came close to scoring two minutes after, as his strike from the edge of the penalty box went just across the face of goal.

Barcelona had no mercy for the Mancunians, and having already suffered three dangerous attempts from the worldâ€™s Player of the Year, the Catalans were determined to respond with a goal. Samuel Etoâ€™oâ€™s nice control over the ball after 10 minutes on the clock, allowed him to beat a man inside the danger zone before sending the ball into the back of the net; 1-0 was the score line.

Later on, Barcelona were all over the place. Xavi nearly doubled the lead for Guardiolaâ€™s men, but his free kick from the left-hand side was somewhat miscalculated to clinch a second goal.

Ronaldo had a few more chances to level the score to 1-1, however, with Barcelonaâ€™s players crowed in the defense, there was no way anyone was going to comfort the English side.

Surprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo started losing patience, and his bad challenges on Carlos Puyol didnâ€™t miss the refereeâ€™s attention.

25 minutes in the second half was enough for Barcelona to make their dream come true. A decent cross from Xavi Hernandez on the right wing enabled Messi to find himself unmarked, only to brilliantly head in the ball into the net for a second goal. This superb header from the Argentine number 10 was a real surprise for Manchester Unitedâ€™s defense, and arguably, it could be regarded as the best header in the Champions League this season.

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United then knew that the game was over for them, and having realized that the Champions League title had been taken from them, their hope was completely dead. Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, and Nimanja Vidic all went on to get yellow cards for dreadful tackles, and surely, there couldnâ€™t be a greatest nightmare for the Manchester United players.

In the end, after 90 minutes, Barcelona were crowned European champions for the second time in four seasons, and without doubt, Lionel Messi as well as Pep Guardiola couldnâ€™t ask for more. The unbelievable had just happened to them; at a time were their desire of being champions was the strongest.

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Written by Isaac Asante