Hi

As a Manchester United supporter naturally I was disappointed to have to watch them lose.

It was no surprise though because Barcelona are the best team in the World at this time and many say the best ever.

United played well but they were just not good enough to beat an outstanding team....I emphasise the word team.

Much has been said about their brilliant passing and fluid movement but for me the thing that they did so well last night was to be able to smother almost every United attack even before it started. As soon as any attack broke down Barcelona had several players immediately pressing United into mistakes. As Auotlycus says above, this running and movement off the ball when not in possession was fantastic.

That United were not overwhelmed completely by this display is much to their credit. They were overun in midfield where Giggs, Carrick Valencia and the non-stop Park were mesmerised by the to likes of Iniesta and Xavi and Busquets. Messi was absolutely outstanding and his ability to run twinkletoed through the defence with the ball appearing to be tied to his boot was a pleasure to watch.

Gnu talks above about Rooney being out of position, but he has a wandering role and his enthusiasm and movement shone, and his goal was as good as anything that Barcelona could offer. Rooney was the outstanding United player, but he was playing almost a lone role as the rest of the team were pressed in trying to stop Barcelona.

Van de Saar made some outstanding saves and Vidic and Ferdinand played well enough but Barcelona found a way of going around these strong defenders.

Although beaten United made it a good contest and contributed to a flowing game of attacking football.So I applaud Barcelona and hope that we can have learned something from this great display.

Cheers

Mikel2