Lionel Messi - Carlos TevezWhat a resenting-usual match. That was what I thought as a Barça fan about the first half of last night match, FC Barcelona versus Manchester United FC, at Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona. I only saw a usual behavior of Barcelona team. They looked suppressing their opponents almost all the time, but without any good finishing at all emoticon. They acted like they had been superior by one or two goals ahead United and no longer need to score at the game. In fact, they had to maximize the opportunity of playing at their home ground at first leg. And I don’t think the Catalan team could win the second leg easily, regarding United’s fantastic records of home matches.

Nevertheless, The Red Devils played quite well emoticon. As the visitors, they applied Alex Ferguson’s tactics remarkably. They waited on Barcelona’s attacks patiently, thickened the defense wall as the adversaries dominated the ball possession, and then gave fast dangerous shocking counter attacks through Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, and the superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. They seemed to be downhearted after Ronaldo failed to score from the penalty kick given by the referee due to Gabriel Milito’s handball, but they amazingly came up moments after, and then gave a strong resistance.

The second period looked more promising. After halftime, Barcelona players seemed to be more aggressive, especially the last 25 minutes of the game. Frank Rijkaard substituted Lionel Messi with Bojan Krkic, and minutes later brought Thierry Henry in to replace Deco. That tactic didn’t seem to work though. Being eager to attack and score to make more advantage of the first semifinal, Barcelona just keep having the same problems: terrible finishing emoticon. Edwin van der Sar’s good goalkeeping performance also contributed in Barcelona’s barrenness. Desperations had made some players of both teams try to trick the referee by doing the divings to gain penalty. I have been always condemned those deceitful tricks, no matter by which player they are done.emoticon

However, I will consider the goalless score as a pretty good result since Barcelona have to play the next match at Old Trafford, Manchester. It was good that they could keep United from scoring, so a 1-1 or 2-2 tie result would be enough to reach the UEFA Champions League final. Hopefully so.emoticon

 

Picture taken from goal.com

Tags: Barcelona, Manchester United, football, UEFA, Champions League, semifinal