Football !

[Spork]

Napusti topic. :P

[Fika[F]]

man u ftw

ferguson best coach in history if you ask me

[-KaMiKaZa-]

that boy hernandes is a piece of gold if u ask me

[fatman69]

D-Day has come. Both teams are the champions of their respective leagues, both are chasing their second trophy of the season, and both have put up a decent fight to come this far. Knockout stage of this years' Champions League brought Arsenal, Shakhtar and Real Madrid to Barcelona, and Marseille, Chelsea and Schalke to United, although Inter seemed a more likely possibility at the time of the draw. Tough draws on both sides, and two different game philosophies. For Barcelona, it is the strategy of infinite number of small passes, mostly on the ground, and a lot of direct through balls, aiming at one of the best players in the world. Manchester's strategy, or better yet strategies, since one of their main traits is their adaptability, is defined by very precise long balls, fast counter-attacks, and attacks from the flank. Whatever strategies the managers choose, Barcelona is almost sure to dominate possession, somewhere around 60% would be a conservative estimate. Will this prove to be enough?

Manchester boast one of the best defensive systems in Europe, and one of the best goalies today, who, sadly, will be playing his last game tonight. As big and strong Ferdinand and Vidic are, they might find themselves on the wrong foot against the fast and nimble Messi, Pedro and Iniesta. However, they present a great attacking asset, especially in set pieces, should Barca allow sufficient chances. Barca cannot complain about their defense either, especially Pique and Alves who are real threats forward.

Barca's midfield is their pride and joy and their strongest link. Just having Xavi and Iniesta as your partners would make any player seem great, which Busquets proves game after game. United's midfield presents the major enigma for the strategists - Carrick, Giggs, Fletcher or Anderson as two central midfielders? United needs to suffocate Barcelona's threat from this position, but when they take the ball they need a player to hold it and bring it forward. Because of this Giggs should, and probably will be played. Fletcher would seem the better choice of his partner if not for his recent injury spell of several weeks, which casts a shadow on his possible start, and will probably result in Carrick being preferred to him. Park and Valencia have been considered the first choice as two wide midfielders for a long time, especially after Nani's recent decline and I think there should not be any surprises here. The question that will decide the game is whether or not these players can hold Barcelona in the midfield and hold on to the ball for as long as it is necessary, and this is where the game will be decided.

If this game was decided just by attacking threat, Barcelona's name would already be on the cup. As much as Chicharito's discovery and Rooney's re-discovery have proved to be miracles of the season, playing against one of the best players in the world, and the best scorer of Euro 2008, and almost the best scorer of World Cup 2010 might be too much of a task for them. Should Messi score tonight he will have scored 100 goals in the past two seasons, and that is the definition of "DAAAAMN!". However, there might be a trick in there somewhere. Messi's mood might be ruined by Guardiola's decision to exclude him from the last 2 games in La Liga, thus enabling Ronaldo to become the top-scorer of the season, although this is a rather long shot. However, another detail that goes in United's favour is Hernandez's ability to score goals against all possible sides, which cannot be said for Berbatov, and this leaves Rooney with the task of helping out in defense and midfield, which might prove pivotal.

Despite all "but"s and "although"s the odds are on Barcelona's side, although the odds mean very little. 60-40 for Barcelona win, but 45-55 if United do not concede a goal until the hour mark.

Predicted line-ups

Barcelona (their classic 4-3-3)
-------------Valdes-------------
-------Pique--------Puyol------- (although a lot of sites seem to prefer Mascherano as CB, and Puyol as RB)
-Alves-------------------Adriano
------------Busquets-----------
-------Xavi-----------Iniesta----
------Pedro-----------Villa-----
--------------Messi------------

Manchester United (4-4-1-1, but this will probably change, either to 3-4-3, if the result goes Barca's way, or even to 4-5-1 if the game goes United's way)

----------Van der Saar-----------
-------Ferdinand----Vidic---------
---Fabio------------------Evra---
----------Carric---Giggs----------
--Valencia---------------Park-----
-------------Rooney--------------
-------------Chicharito------------

[Nery]

For ninety minutes we'll let them know,
It's Man United - Here we go!

[paiNISTHESHIT]

I think its Man United turn to win Champions League... hope chicha do something cool tonight

[Cen]

Just in case someone is searching for a stream, bobo put this on ro: [url]http://www.ro-dota.com/ro-site/stream.php[/url]

[mILOSbRE]

Spectacle is about to start,cant wait !!!1!11!

[Akhe]

lol mascherano > puyol
imo barca win 1-0

[Mrs.Ola]

Rooney...
1-1

[.DeitY.]

MESIIIIIIIIIIIIIII hola hola mesiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

2:1 GO GO GO

[Johnny-Bravo]

Mesi Pro.

[PROTOZZ]

Congratulations to Juventus for winning Champions League.

[paiNISTHESHIT]

gg barca messi pwned them again gratz Cen

[Fika[F]]

cen probably out partying