Analysis: Manchester United at the Champions League Final 2011

The Champions League final for the season 2010-11 between Manchester United and Barcelona was one of the most eagerly anticipated matches of the year and perhaps one of its biggest let-downs of the year. After being humiliated 2-0 by Barcelona a couple of seasons back, Manchester United were tipped to come back stronger and mount a much more serious challenge to the brand of football that is synonymous to Barcelona. However, as the final score of 3-1 suggests, it was one more day when Barcelona trampled over their opponents in grand Catalonian style. Here are some reasons that I feel were key to the end result

• Manchester United ran out of energy after 20 minutes. In the final of 2008-09, they lasted for 10 minutes before being swamped by Barcelona. This year, they took the game to Barcelona and threatened for the first 20 minutes. However, once Barcelona began to get into their groove, they began to run Manchester United ragged with their slick and accurate passing. With tired legs running United’s midfield, it was only a matter of time before Barcelona carved United up.

• United went into the game with a wrong formation: They say hindsight is a wonderful thing. Had United gone on to win the game, I could well be saying that they did exceptionally well to take Barcelona on and try to beat them at their own game. However, the attack minded game-plan that Sir Alex Ferguson went with came to naught once Barcelona took the lead and began dominating. Essentially running midfield, Barcelona proceeded to create a host of chances which finally resulted in three goals

• Patrice Evra had an off game: United’s game was highly dependent on being abl to control Lionel Messi who is widely regarded as being the most influential player at Barcelona. Evra was caught napping by Messi and was at fault the first and second goals of the game. He was non-existent on the defensive front and attackingly as well he was extremely quiet. Messi truly showed how he can take advantage of the slightest errors by the defenders. All he needed was a chance or two to get and create the goals.

• Barcelona were just too good! They were far more creative in the final third. They had huge possession and did not let United play their game at all.