As if any team would need extra motivation to beat us in a European Cup final than losing out to us on sudden death penalties the season before. To play Chelsea in the final would have meant we faced a enraged monster who were desperate not only to win the first European Cup in their club’s history, but even the score with United. Given their controlled displays against Barcelona, I wouldn’t fancy this task.
Whilst obviously not Chelsea’s biggest fan, far from it in fact, you can’t help but feel we aren’t playing the best side from the other semi-final when we go to Rome. For all their flair and brilliant attacking football in La Liga, Barca just aren’t that good when they come across English. In the past few seasons, they have been knocked out by Liverpool, Chelsea and United and only beat Arsenal in the final thanks to late goals after playing against ten men for most of the match. On the performance in the semi-finals, they certainly look like an easier team to break down than Chelsea.
Whilst looking a complete twat when making his point, it’s hard to argue with Drogba that it was a “fucking disgrace” that Barca are our opponents, given the penalties Chelsea should have been awarded. Abidal shouldn’t have received his marching orders for Anelka’s “trip” but that doesn’t even the score. It makes you wonder where the fuck UEFA get their referees from, given the soft freekicks our referee was blowing up for yesterday and the disgusting decision to send off Darren Fletcher for a brilliantly timed tackle on Cesc Fabregas.
I’m relieved we’re not playing Chelsea but they were robbed. Our job is a lot easier than it would have been though and for the neutral, hopefully the match will live up to its expectations. But essentially, I just want the trophy and I’ll take a scrappy 1-0.
Man Utd News 24/7
I have to say that the Rent boys were scewed in the end but i believe that overall justice was done.
screwed i meant.In these days i have seen worst officiating than in the greek league
Barca will be without Marques, abidail and alves for the final.
ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK!!!
I Love it!
I’m glad that the 2 most entertaining teams are playing in the final and that the ugly football of Chelsea isn’t advancing although they got robbed
It would have been like Liverpool version 2.0 would be in the final if Chelsea would have won….
This final will be amazing!!!
http://imagehut.net/images/oivzoryhzjsutfy36cif.png
Hate Chelsea but they where robbed!! well said scott!
just hope we have everyone on the day!
costas
did you see the behaviour of the chelsea team? disgraceful…
im fucking delighted for all the reasons scott has spoken about above… barca are missing some serious fullbacks also… God is a football fan lads..
will this ref now get death threats… terry mwaaah mwaaah
I think that in these 2 days it has been evident that Platini does not want another Emnglish team to win it.Look out for the same in the final.
Barca will be missing players like Alves and Abidal. The likes of Ronnie and Rooney will have a free run against their second choice fullbacks.
Oh yea they were but when a big of quality was needed from Barca the produced. While I thought the ref from Italy was not the best he was consistent. The ref tonight was absolutely awful and was obviously shook up in the big moment. The red card was the most ridiculous decision of the match in my opinion and while Chelsea could have been rewarded two penalties, one could argue that had they had all 11 on the pitch it wouldn’t have occured. I am excited to be facing Barca and can not wait for May 27th. Time to focus on the EPL, finish off the chasing pack and then begin preparing for the Final!
Barca will have some issues to sort out. Abidal out, Dani Alvez out and of course Marquez out due to this injury. Got to take our chances and stay organized. Their back line will have Puyol and Pique in the middle and the way they struggled against the organization of Chelsea I think we should have the upper hand. Can’t wait for the game!
keanesmagichat absolutely disgraceful.But i do feel for them.I am glad they got knocked out but not for this way.It could spell trouble for us later on.
would not be surprising costa!! here in france the comentators are anti english!
The ref sure was a prick..Both the semi finals had pricks for refs.. Chelsea were robbed man…It cant be claimed fair to not award a penalty for such an obvious handball, but then maybe he was having guilty thoughts in his mind… Refereeing standards need a lot of improvement, if uefa want their refs to be respected at all.. If this keeps happening again and again, I hope all the teams come together and plead against an on field refereeing eventually..
The behaviour of Drogba and Ballack at the end was a disgrace. Yes, Chelsea got some bad decisions but look at Hiddink at the end, he reacted with a bit of dignity, didn’t go shouting and screaming but made his point in the correct fashion. Personally, I am delighted to see messrs. Drogba, Terry, Cole et al going out. Couldn’t have opened to a nicer bunch of players.
costas
why? i cannot believe that platini is giving refs a directive to screw english teams over… i just cannot believe that
If UTD play as they did against Arsenal, they should beat Barca. With 3/4 of their regular defence missing Barca will definitely be up against it. And with the huge following UTD will have in Rome, they’ll have a great chance of making it back to back wins. But first there is the business of wrapping up the EPL title.
Ist and last time in my life: Gutted for Chelsea..
Its gonna be a close game against barca, but i am sure we will prevail..
Come on United!!!!
or pro arsenal ofcourse!!
haha
guess what
uefa president platini didnt like the idea of english teams in the final
and what does he do
he pays the ref
HAHAHAHA
rentboys got screwed
worst referring i have seen in a long time..
good goal tho but stil shuda bin 3-0 up by then
barca got the arshavin touch
1 shot on target
1 goal
no alves, abidal
no marques did someone say??
against our attack?
BRILLIANT!!!!
HERE WE COME ROME!!
Chelsea are gone that’s why the tradition since 2003 is finally broken )
Finally time for the team to win 2 in arrow ? )
keanesmagichat it’s just my conspiracy theory on this.Chelsea didn’t deserve the 4-5 penalties that they appealed for but 2 of them were legit.He was right in front of them.Platini has expressed his concerns about the power of English teams multiple times.Another English Final would not have been marketable.
what about another UTD win is that marketable??
@ving: I hope so.But after the semis i am concerned about the officiating.
costas
i dont really buy that, i believe the ref tonight just missed a lot of tricks.. some refs react worse when players shout at them and get their back up.. thats how he reacted… chelsea will be in big trouble for this behaviour…
I haven’t read all the other comments, but I disagree with your article mate. The two best sides in Europe will be meeting in the final of the Champions league, and that is the way it should be – Chelsea are a shade of what they were last season, but Barcelona are about to break all kinds of records with goals scored etc… I agree that they aren’t the greatest against English sides, but this is the English league, it is the Champions league.
Perhaps my love of Barcelona as a club and footballing tradition usurps my hatred of Chelski and everything they represent, but I think the correct two teams will be battling it out in Rome.
That being said, we will beat Barcelona, and quite convincingly as well… it is hurting all the more that we dont have Fletch though, as he would have been an invaluable asset in closing down the likes of Iniesta and Xavi in the midfield.
Bring it on.
costas you are reading too many conspiract books mate!
im a lot happier to be playing barca… without their 2 1st choice fullbacks and marquez…
keanesmagichat you can bet that they will be.They lost the plot and for less chaos Olympiacos got some bans for the way their players reacted after a game in Lyon.That referee was incompetent for a semi.Doesn’t Lubos Mihel referee anymore?
I am glad that we will play barca.and they deserved to go through.chelsea couldnt pass the ball for a single minute in the whole match.and that cunt drogba went down like a little girl when there was minimal contact from abidal.chelsea defended with 10 men. But that doesnt matter bcoz i think it would be better for us to play barca
good night mates.
“Doesn’t Lubos Mihel referee anymore?”
no.
@keanesmagichat
I seriously doubt Chelsea would get into trouble. Imagine if Rooney would have done what Ballack or Drogba did… He wud have been blown away by the media..
Off the Topic : I am so glad that cunt Ballack has not won anything worthwhile wid Chelsea yet
keanesmagichat i am also happy that we are facing Barca.The Real curse is broken and as Scott says we are not facing a team hell bent on revenge.And they do have some absences.
as an aside, we shouldn’t even be talking about pen appeals – Drogba had a couple of chances to finish the game in open play…
as our boy Christiano says – ‘this is football’
smudger
your spot on lad but i think uefa will throw the book at them…
you know ballack has 2 losers cl medals, came 2nd twice in the epl, twice came 2nd for leverskusen, losers euro medal for germany, losers world cup medal for germany.. theguy always conmes second its brilliant! delighted
at least neither abidal nor alves will be playing against us. Lets show them who the REAL best team in the world are. Chelsea didn’t deserve to be knocked out like this. An absolute fuck of a referee and God helps us PLEASE UEFA choose a decent one please =(
Barcelona will be missing Dani Alves, Abidal, and Marques for the Final.
However Puyol and Henry will be back.
Barcelona are not as organised as Chelsea and if I had to pick from the the two I would have wanted Barcelona.
Last year I thought it was the start of something special and over the coming years we will see whether that is true.
We need to emulate AC Milan with the amount of finals they reached and finals they won. The AC Milan team of the late 80′s and early 90′s was formidible. I see Blatter had no problem with AC Milans dominance then!
Drogba is going to be in some rather serious trouble isnt he?! That pleases me. He cost them the cup last year and his poor finishing and his diving leading to the 4 mins of extra time cost chelsea again. Delighted. And with no Alves or Abidal we really should win that game. Anderson Carrick and Giggs will have to stop xavi and iniesta from playing football
@keanesmagichat
Ye Ballack is a bloody cunt. He said United are no longer the power houses they were.. Chelsea are the team to beat and joined dem…
hahahahahhahahahah.. Look it him now..
Well said Scott. 100%. You guys will murder Barca. Its on the platter for you. Barca, pretty footy my BUTT. If you can’t get a shot on target whats pretty about that. It got them nowhere, and would’ve got them nowhere had the ref not screwed up. How didn’t he see Pique handball just blows my mind.
Anyway, my chin is up. We’re Chelsea, moments like these come in the way of big teams.
Ballack was also a disgrace.How lucky were we to get him instead of Carrick in 06
Chelsea were robbed tonight but that is no excuse for he actions of Ballack and Drogba.
smudger
thats up there with shearer heading to the geordies, but at least i his defence they were his home town club… ballack is a cunt as you say… good to see englands brave john terry got his class from his mothers side eh?
Are there any teams out there with more pricks in the same starting eleven than Chelsea? If any group deserved to be knocked out like that then it’s Chelsea. They had it coming to them Essien – nasty little prick who gets away with murder in the middle. Ashley Cole – need I say anymore. John Terry – another prick who seems to get away with things because of who he is. Drogba – a petulant, cheating, horrible individual. Ballack – another sneaky, whining, spoilt player (he epitomises the Chelsea ethos). I could go on (Obi Mikel, Anelka…)
And for those questioning SAF’s management,all you have to do is look at Gerrard and Bendtner’s nightclub antics and Chelsea’s attitude tonight.
Fletcher will be sorely missed against Barcelona’s midfield. I thought the ref from last night could not be outdone, but I was clearly wrong.
Barcelona will have Puyol back from suspension, but will have to field Pique and the aging Sylvinho. Where heir right-back will come from is a mystery to me. The absence of Alves is a huge boost as he is the reason for Messi’s unbelievable season, so the team of Rooney and Evra should dominate the left wing.
Hopefully the experience and physical advantages will win us a 4th European Cup. I think we should consider Chelsea’s approach and mix it with our trademark passing.
Chelsea should have finished the game off long before the equaliser,it looked like Chelsea had 10 men for the last 15 minutes. Last year when we played Barca I was shitting myself that they’d score late on and put us out,we were good enough to hold them off comfortably. Chelsea just couldn’t quite do it. Their behaviour at the final whistle proves they don’t deserve to be in any final.
Chelsea were robbed, and guess what? I don’t fucking care. I’m delighted they are out. The classless bunch of overpaid twats got the cold slap they deserved. Drogba complaining about someone else cheating is a fucking joke! Look in the mirror you cunt!
Also, red cards to two of Barca’s already weak defense. Brilliant. I don’t give a fuck that Abidal should have stayed on the pitch. So should have fletcher. Deal with it! We will.
I just hope the ref for the finals isn’t as inept at the bald fucker who mugged the chavs. I know platini hates the english but hopefully the finals will be decided on the pitch by the players and not the fucker with the whistle.
“Drogba complaining about someone else cheating is a fucking joke! Look in the mirror you cunt!”
Devilton – couldn’t have put it better myself!
Man! If only Iniesta somehow missed the final – he is phenominal!
I’m not sure I agree with you on that one Scott. True, Chelsea had the best chances and all that. But for my money, there was only one team out there tonight that actually wanted to pay football. Dives, sadistic tackles, more dives, feigning injuries, even more dives- Chelsea was the embodiment of all that is evil in football, just as they usually are. Barca may not have been the better side on the night, but you can’t help but feel a sense of poetic justice being done.
Sad story… http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=643825&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=5901
chelsea players reaction was a disgrace, spoilt children, ballack runnin at the ref and actually catching the ref in the face for not giving a dodgy peno at best, you didn’t see that from darren fletcher and his place in the final was gauranteed. Fuck them, seriously last year it was drogba red card and terry appearing to spit at carlos tevez and tonight this reaction they should be thrown out of europe competition after this debocle
Rent boys can whinge for as long as they wish, but their style of football does not deserve any honours. Putting all the blame on the referre is just an attempt to disguise their own failures. Barca played for most of the second half with 10 men, yet Chelsea chose to protect a 1:0 lead, rather than killing the game off. Their performance in Barcelona was murdering of the beautiful game we love.
Tonight, at the final whistle, the whole world saw what they they really are – ordinary thugs who happen to play football.
Just read this on another forum, what if Man Utd and Barcelona could do some kind of deal with UEFA, Fletchers red card to be rescinded if Abidals was rescinded… considering neither were sending off offences. What do you guys think ?
I seriously thought Ballack was going to tackle the referee…did it remind anyone else of Keown’s war dance around Van Nistelrooy after he missed that penalty??
Near the end I was really rooting for Barca after that terrible dive from Anelka, but after they scored I felt bad for Chelsea…when they showed that little Chelsea fan crying, it was so sad!
Regardless, they’re probably the team I dislike the most…and prob the biggest cheats
I am still in shock.
I feel so sorry for cheksly fans its unreal. They deserved to be in the final, and were robbed by a refferee that was so out of his depth its untrue. Why are we not using officals from Top European leagues.. Italy Germany France holland – Not norway! What credintials has a norweign ref got to reff a game of such importance? Specialy as he was so shit it was untrue! He looked like a sunday league ref!
From the match –
First pen decision with Maluda – for me No Pen!
Drogba Trip – Clash of legs, sorry but a pen!
Anelka Trip – Sending off??? sorry but id have to say no card. Contact was made but i felt it ws minimal and accidental. Common sense should prevail.
Pique Hand Ball – I know people argue hand to ball and ball to hand, but for me his hand is very high, out from his body and stops a goal scoring chance – For me a Pen!
Ballack shot – Hand Ball??? For me no pen _ Ball struck hard, arm up to defent his face …
I think checksly have been done. I think the ref had been instructed by Platini himself who hates the english domination to be in favour of Barca!
Some might critisize my defence of our arch rivals, but no offence i would hate to loose a match like this! This is not what the modern game is about, Its all about playing against the best. Although Barca for me played the better in the 2 matches and didnt deserve a ref as biased as tonight.
I think the response from the Chelsky players was bad, but if it had been united i think it would have been the same…. Rooney – Rio – Ronaldo would have went nuts!..not to mention fergie… I think fergie would have been insane!
For the neutral im glad that we are facing Barca, although i am very dissapointed that we are playing them.
By christ its going to be some match all the same!
ROME_09 rules are rules i am afraid.I don’t think anything can be done.For me if we clinch the title,this season will have been even more successful than the last one.Getting to the final against Barca is a great occasion in itself.
Someone posted about a deal between barca and united getting both red cards resinded…
Someone please clear this up.. Will barca be missing both full backs for the final?
the fa should be delighted with barca going true
with the way fletcher handled wrongly getting sent off and the class united show on and off the field
why would they want those disgracfully rentboys representing england
move over rentboys the class is heading to rome
just to add a little comment that wasnt said in the last 24 hours
evra was 100% unreal yesterday welcome back pats confidence
perfect timing
I would do the deal with UEFA – Fletcher will be missed a lot against Barca – now Anderson our key midfielder for the game – If only Hargreaves was alive!
This has the potential to be the greatest ever final
Costas, I couldnt agree more. Without a doubt if you look at the league form and style of play i would honestly say after how much barca outplayed chelsky in both games and how much united out played arsenal taht Barca and united are by far the 2 best teams in europe.
My only discust is at how barca got through. If united got put out in such a manor i would be utterly unconsolable!
Yes both Barca full-backs will miss final… BUT I think it is positive for them that Alves misses the final – can you imagine how much space he would leave for our counter attacks!
where was the supposed best footballer in the world tonight ? oh thats right probably tucked up in his cheshire mansion somewhere
VIVA RONALDO
Tony, I disagree
Alves is so quick i think ronaldo would have found it difficult. Alves is to Barca like Evra is to united.
Evra offers that something special going forward exactly what the modern fullback should!
How awful was Alves’ crossing tonight though?At least he got the crucial one right.
UEFA is not going to do a deal…rules are rules, it doesn’t matter…once you start changing one rule, it opens up a pandora’s box of decisions that are allowed to be challenged and can bring the game into a bit chaos…i think you should be able to challenge red cards, but i also understand the reasoning behind not letting it…for example, in the case of a player bringing down the last man in the penalty box (like fletch) that would be a red card and a penalty…but if you challenge and rescind the red card, it’s also saying that it wasn’t a penalty…and if it wasn’t a penalty, but a goal was scored as a result of it, then it was not really a goal…and then it leads to results being challenged
so UEFA just want to nip it all in the bud, and allow for no appeals
What would your final line up be?
Mine at the moment to play barca would be
VDS
Oshea / Brown – Rio – Vidic – Evera
Carrick – Anderson
Park Tevez Rooney
Ronaldo
My reasons is for Park, Tevez & rooney to hound down possession. I was highly impressed with how well Barca in both games closed down play and managed to win back possession high up the pitch. If we give them space we might as well hand them the cup! If we close them down we have a real good chance!!! WE need a high energy team and if fletch had have been fit i would have had him and anderson in midfield with carrick as the arsenal games!
What you think?
alves is one of the most overrated players in the world… distribution dreadul and gives so many free kicks.. the catalans themselves have not been happy with his contribution this season… not fit to lace evra’s boots
My concerns about Fletcher’s absence have been given some perspective when we consider what Barcelona are missing…Perfect final, we can demolish them and end all this ‘Barca best team in Europe’ talk, courtesy of half-wits like Gabrielle Marcotti, once and for all.
Trevor mine would be: VDS-O’Shea,Rio,Vida,Evra-Park,Carrick,Ando,Giggsy,Rooney-Ronaldo.
I think he will go with 3 midfielders and give Giggsy the nod over Scholes.But it could be Tevez because he wants to press their defence into making mistakes.
Oshea instead of Brown and Scholes ahead of Tevez
Jessie,
I really disagree, I expect honesty and intergrity from the referees. They are only human and although webb made an awful decision in our favour for our pen against spurs i really respect him coming out and saying. “look from the angle i seen it i thought it was a pen, now seeing the replay i now admit it was wrong..” in honesty his angle was bad.
The angle the ref that seen fletches tackle was bad, he was directly behind both players…
The ref for chelskys game for me doesnt have that excuse.
There is a respect campain for referees but how can you respect someone who cant be honest and justify his decision or even admit to an error..It doent matter that a penalty was given, your never going to take away that goal or get the game replayed. At least you can live with the fact it was a mistake, respect it was difficult for the ref and accept he was honest to say it was a mistake and if he was in a differnt position when the event happend wouldnt have given it… blah blah blah
costas – Who plays upfront?
I hope Uefa throw the book as Drogba, Ballack and Terry. Not sure if there was anyone else who got in the refs face repeatedly during the final minute and after the whistle (was watching the game on laptop while watching apprentice on TV so wasn’t paying full attention). Drogba is just a stupid thug, Ballack put his hands on the ref while shouting abuse at him and Terry at the Final Whistle got in the refs face, walked away then went back for seconds before walking away again and then after telling drogba to back off did so again. He will use the “Im Captain excuse” but its typical Terry. If any of our players did what he did on a regular basis they would be driven out of the country
Dani Alves would be a good wide midfielder in the Premiership but as a defender he is very dodgy, that’s why teams like Chelsea and Liverpool rejected him before he went to Barca – plus Maicon gets ahead of him in the Brazil side
Barca will be missing 3/4 of their defence through suspensions and inury to the mexican CB i can’t spell his name, united’s strike force will piss all over the barca reserve defenders, and barca’s strikers are shit against a well organised defence, playing against spainish defenses is one thing playing against the world club champions defence is another thing.
Manchester United to be the first club to successfully defend their european title
keanesmagichat – From tonight he looked to me to be quite involved high up the pitch, and was very quick in defence… Most definatly not good enough to lace evras boots but his role in the team is simular..
It would be simular to united swaping evra with john oshea..
Trevor i think Ronaldo will play up front just like at the Emirates.If we go with Tevez,then Ronaldo will play on the wing.
I hope that they can defend it but any united fan who thinks this is a walk in the park is a fool.
I do honestly think we will cause them far more problems that chelsky, thats for sure!
I just hope someone wins with a moment of brilliance and not a mistake or a piss poor refereeing decision.
The last thing i would want to live with would be a piss poor pass back that was converted being the only goal of the game or a bad refereeing display which stoped the game from being played and a goal from a bad pen or free kick decision!
Squad for the final in Rome
VDS
O’Shea Rio Vida Evra
Carrick Anderson
Park Tevez Rooney
Ronaldo
I feel that, in a final against Chelsea, we would have struggled to cope with their midfield because of their enforcers like Ballack and Essien. Essien is a class act – it’s a pity we didn’t sign him.
Barcelona have Xavi and Iniesta but I feel that, if we can stop those 2, we will be OK. Get one man to track Messi all night. We should really get after that defence of theirs because it really isn’t up too much.
I’ll be reasonably confident, provided the players stay fit and injury free for 3 more weeks.
trevor
good point, i think he is a very inconsistent and a cheat! im a lot happier playing barca…
I dont think we will see ronaldo on the wing against barca, fergie without a doubt in my mind will go with rooney and park for protection and have ronaldo up front as he caused so much trouble for Arsenal.
With regards to your team selection i went for tevez behind ronaldo as i think he will have more energy to burn than giggs and that giggs could be more effective coming on with the last 30 to go!
Although this season giggs has impressed me in center mid! But i dont think along side scholes it works, and it would have to be as a midfield 3 with gigs and anderson taking turns to bomb forward!
I also would be tempted to tell anderson to stick on inesta and hound him down and not give him any time to pick the play!
dvdpower21 – Perfect comment. Majority of Chelsea players are scum and they deserved to be knocked out for that alone. They’re cheaters, and usually their cheating gets them places, but fortunately not this time.
I don’t think we should be under-estimating Barca just because of their defensive situation, they’re still excellent and it’ll be a very close and very good game regardless.
Can anyone tell me any other players who snubbed us to join another side, other than Ballack, Mikel and Shearer?
One other thing that is on my mind is that if we beat barca we are less likly to lose ronaldo in my eyes!!
There is no way he would leave after united have won 2 european titles in both seasons.. What for to a real madrid side which are ronaldo + 4 other top signings away with no gaurentees of being successful!
I dont think so!! Ronaldo although wants to join real, he is not stupid!! He can play from them for one year before he retires at the age of 36!!
Actually I do not care about Abidal playing or not, Alves is the one we had to worry about, and he is not playing definitely, and that is good news. At least Rooney, if he plays on the left, won’t need to help out Evra as much as had Alves & Messi running down there. Couple that with us missing our defensive Fletcher, it looks like we might have no choice but to be more offensive in our formation
Bag-o-Crack – I disagree. I dont like chelsky that much either and cant stand drogba dropping like a sack of spuds every 10 munites!
Tonight what happened to them is a discrace to proper football.
I expect a level playing feild, not what i witnessed tonight.
Bag-o-Crack Said
Ronaldinho,Salas,Benzema??
bag-o-crack – robben, mikel, that little welsh twat who joined the gooners, more that i can’t think of
i see you had mikel already
haha how are ya lad
did i miss something or was it players who turned down united to join chelsky??
When did ramsey, ronaldinho salas and benzema join chelsky?
cicinho
it was another side trev not the rent boys
keanesmagichat – how many Italians are ya gonna bash on this next trip to rome! Our fan will have to watch their backs for those filthy Italian bastards as well as the Barca boys. Could be tasty
ahhh…
Out of them lot ronaldinho is the only one who i would have loved to have seen at old trafford..> Although him not coming got us ronaldo!! yippie!!!
On another topic, everybody keeps raving about ronado – kaka and messi being the best 3 players int he world!
Ronaldo after the last few matches has performed against the big teams at last.. He is definatly up there!
Kaka has done it against the big teams – was responsible for puting us out of the comp a couple of seasons ago!
Messi – I think he is class, scares the pants off me but seemed to be a little non existant for me any time i have watched him….Am i missing something… Apart from its obvious the boy has tallent!
did we have a bid in for marcelo when he fucked off to madrid?
haha
will be tasty in rome alright, will need to watch our backs! the barca fans are a nice lot, its the dirty ass stabbing romans we will need to look out for… can you ring me there
Deeply disturbing refereeing tonight, wouldn’t put it past Platini. Difficult to say which was the better outcome for us – maybe this one as Barca can’t be as motivated as Chelsea would have been. Cannot be any place in Rome for Scholes, who couldn’t tackle a fishing rod let alone Iniesta.
Give ya a buzz in a few minutes keano……
I wanted Barca for the final, but this poor referreeing leaves a bad taste. Hopefully we get a decent ref in Rome. Screw Platini, we’re more than good enough to win it again this year.
I have faith in our team.It’s just that i will feel a lot safer if we are allowed to get a penalty against them.Thank God the Norwegian won’t be in charge.
Thanks for the names!
Never knew about Salas. I wish he and Ronaldinho had joined but fuck the rest of them – their loss not ours.
The main positive thing about playing Barca in the final over Chelsea is Barca are a fair team, they don’t cheat or play dirty. Commentator said that red card was their first for 10 years in europe.
Chelsea DO cheat and play dirty every chance they get – They did in the final last year, feigning injury to stifle play, diving, fouling – Just like they did tonight.
Playing Barca we’ll get a fair game and so it should be pretty open.
I will put an ABU hat on, and say only one thing – Man United bought the referee tonight, and are responsible for Chelsea going out of Europe!
On a more serious note, I haven’t seen the contentious decisions (could only see the last 10 mins) but I don’t care either. I am not going to feel distraught about bad refeering in other games, given that we are all but accused of buying off referees by otherwise respectable commentators and pundits. As good ol’ Ronaldo said yesterday – ‘this is football’, for better or worse. I felt terrible for Fletch yesterday, but honestly why should I complain about the joys of watching John Terry nearly in tears yet again, or Michael Ballack ending up second best yet again, and Didier Drogba going mental in agony! Honestly ABUs have pissed me off so much in the very recent past that I am not likely to feel sorry for Chelski tonight – what would have made it better? Liverpool denied 16 penalties and losing to Barca tonight with Barca coming back from 8-0 down, with 6 men on the pitch in stoppage time – and all nine of barca’s goals being penalties that never were…
Sorry I’ve rambled on, but just bring on whoever it is in the final!
And for every idiot ABU that says that ‘football was the loser tonight’ – SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! You bring the game into disrepute every time you belittle a United victory by casting aspersions on the manner in which it was won.
Mahesh don’t worry.They are going to get theirs.2 more league wins will shut them up for good.And they can get on the Barca bandwagon on May 27th for all i care.United have done a miracle for me.They will have played 66 games this season.Ask Chelsea or Liverpool to do that.Ask them to win 3-4 trophies in a year.They can’t.And what you can’t do,you envy.All i want is for the title to be wrapped up by the end of the Arsenal match.The OT crowd deserves a fiesta and we need to give the players a 10 day break before the final.Other than that, i am going to wnjoy the final now.If we win it will be a bonus, but with no English opposition and having won it last year,the pressure is off.Great times for United fans.
Exactly Costas – I remember us discussing this a before or after the Porto second leg – I just did not want Chelsea in the final – first, I think it is actually a tougher game for us, and second losing to Chelsea would just hurt plain and simple – Terry would be out celebrating ‘revenge’ and that would just make me sick. So I agree with you, at least for us fans, the pressure is off with Barca in the finals – we’ll be nervous, we’ll want to win, but it won’t be as agonizing as a Chelsea final would have been.
On to the prem now and I do expect us to keep the momentum going – We’ve got our second (probably third actually) wind, and I can only see us hitting a higher gear now. Fingers crossed though!
And Costas, I think you feel the same – but I am still more nervous about the league than the CL – I can digest losing the latter, but not the league. Like you said a league win and CL final loss is better than a league loss and CL final win. That’s just how I feel right now – winning both would just be magic, though!
Yup,fingers crossed.If West Ham get something from Liverpool that will really deflate them.But in my mind we have 3 games and not 4 games left.As i said above,it won’t be in our best interests to make the Hull game a must-win one.We will need the 10 day break after the season we have had.We are definitely getting into a better level fitness and performance wise and maybe we are becoming a bit more cynical.So 7 points out of 3 games,won’t be a mountain to climb.
As far as Europe is concerned,it’s more than just Terry gloating.It’s about facing European teams because you play with Chelsea at least 2 times a year.It’s also about ending our season,without facing Chelsea for a change.It was also the Real 7 year curse that was finally broken tonight(the team that knocks out the team that knocked out Real wins the trophy).And finally,it would have been very rare for us to beat Chelsea in a final in a second straight year.I just wish Darren would have been along for the ride.But then again,how unlucky was Abidal tonight?
Oh yeah.Very nervous about the league.The way the season has gone,it’s a must win.As i said,i hope West Ham can come up with a good result.
While, like most of us, I didn’t want to play yet again against chelsea, and I hate them to no end, I can’t help but feeling kinda bad for what happened to them today. I just know that if that had happened to us instead of them I’d be tacking a plane to the refs house and tell him a couple of truths instead of writing this.
The West Ham game is key for me Costas – it will be interesting to see how liverpool play that – pressure will be immense because they will know that one slipup and we could have the season won in the next four days, without liverpool getting the chance to put pressure on us with another win. For liverpool that tricky tricky trip also happens to be the most pressure they’re going to feel…here’s hoping they crumble under it…
And West Ham are motivated because i think that they are after a Uefa Cup spot.If they win that,then we have to get 7 points.If they draw that,2 wins in the next 2 would be enough and Arsenal would be giving us a guard of honour!If they lose at Upton Park and we beat City,a draw at Wigan would be enough.We could be celebrating the title this time next week.We are getting there.Goodnight from me.
cheers Costas! Goodnight!
I have to admit , I celebrated Inesta’s srike nearly as much as Ronaldo’s first last night!! We might live to regret this if things go wrong in Rome but if we do lose I’d much rather lose to Barca than The Dippers, Chelski and Arse in that order.
i cant believe myself looking at how ballack and drog talking to ref after the game. its absolutely disgrace. yes he makes mistake, significant mistake in the game, and somehow i do think the mistakes robbed Rent Boys from a place in final. now lets focus on rome and planned how can United exploit the absence of alves and abidal. hope 2nd successive euro title will be realize
“ENGLAND CHAMPION, EURO CHAMPION!!!!”
just when we thought we couldnt see a worse performance by a ref in a UCL semi final than the one on Tuesday, suddenly yesterday’s was… em.. i couldnt find a suitable word for that..
At least 2 penalties for Chelsea, Pique’s handball among the most obvious of handballs you could get, with the ref in clear view of the incident.
And Abidal’s sending off… We could not even compare Fletcher’s to that one. At least there’s something to argue in Fletcher’s, but Abidal’s was like you giving a red card to a player merely standing doing nothing with the ball at the other end of the field.
I think that should Ovrebo’s last game. I wonder how he even got there.
And then, to read most newspapers only highlighting the penalty claims, while taking no notice at all to Abidal’s sending off as if it didnt even happen, is another thing.
Lineup for final. Take it to the bank.
—————-VDS—————–
–O’Shea—Rio—Vidic—Evra–
——Carrick—-Anderson——
—————Giggs—————-
Park——Ronaldo——Rooney
Didnt gareth bale turn united down for spurs?? haha doesent he feel good about that decision now
the only dissapointment was that mouriniho wasnt the manager
the funniest post that i read regarding this match… “the ref missed the plot: why didn’t iniesta get a yellow card for taking off his shirt?”
just could not believe the behaviour of Che players at the end.are these players called professionals with such kind of behaviour.absolutely disgraceful.Ballack wanted to bring down the ref & smash him up.Drogba pointing at the ref & abusing him no end & later showing cross hands to the camera.UEFA should step in & ban 3-5 matches for those players.
@ pault : Iniesta was wearing a yellow colour inner wear & that might have fooled the ref.
The Fact (borrowing from the Spanish goat) is that Chelsea never looked to win the game even after they were down to 10 men.Agreed they should have got 2 penalties but over the 2 legs i believe Barcelona were the only team trying to win the game in 180 minutes..
It is but understandable that the focus of the media etc is drawn to the inept refreeing and I do hope that this would ensure a decent refree for the final, but people feeling sorry for Chelsea should remember why they love our club in the first place; coz we play football the way it is supposed to be played…Chelsea did a remarkable job of putting men behind the ball but they were always vulnerable to the sucker punch ! ( as were we last year @ OT against Barcelona)
Do not let anyone tell you the best team won. Do not let anyone say that football was the victor here. Barcelona may yet grace the Champions League final, they may yet dazzle this competition with a beautiful game, but this was not one of them.
They swung a boot. Swung a boot and got lucky. Swung a boot and, somehow, eliminated a Chelsea team that were superior on the night and deserved a rematch with Manchester United in Rome.
yes. i hope West Ham will do themselves and more importantly us a favour and we will wrap up the title in the Wigan game. that will be an ideal situation for us, doesn’t really matter if we will receive EPL trophy away from home.
It will leave us with 2 games where we can field players like Possebon, Fabio, Wellbeck, Macheda etc and maybe help Hull to stay in the premiership ))
And yes, we are blessed we don’t have this Ballack in our team.What a disgrace. The ugliest human beeing on the football field.
squad for rome:
VDS
rafael ferdinand vidic evra
park carrick anderson
ronaldo rooney
berbatov
I’d have to agree with this lineup for the final:
VDS
O’Shea Rio Vida Evra
Carrick Anderson
Park Tevez Rooney
Ronaldo
Someone posted one with Giggs instead of Tevez — I think it might be better to bring on Giggsy from the bench, since he can’t play the whole game, especially one against a team like Barca, which will no doubt be exhausting.
How I wish we had Hargreaves…he was bought for games like this one. Great defensive shield in midfield and great with setpieces.
Question for discussion — do we want Berbatov potentially taking a penalty in a shootout? I was as annoyed as one with his Everton pen, but I’ve seen him take some before, they were sheer class (see: against Chelski 2008 Carling Cup Final, and others). Plus he’ll want to make amends for his miss.
Cr7 backheel to park..park out to rooney ball across to CR7 goal! BUT IF IT WAS’T FOR HOWARD WEBB GIVING THAT PEANALTY THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE SCORED THOSE GOALS FACT FERGIE. JUST HANDING UNITED THE CL
That was never a penalty Wellbeck threw himself to the ground to try and get Janelka sent off disgraceful!!!!!. Stonewall penalty with that tackle on Drogeba.
as annoyed as anyone*
A real mess up by the ref, and chelski have sunk. sure there were penalties which were not given, specially the handball by x-utd boy, Piqué. but if a team cannot score with the chances they created, they have only themselves to blame. drogba is a wuss, always complaining, like ronny does sometimes, but that outburst after the final whistle was a real shame for professionals at this level…I pray we do not get this ref for the finals, and as for barça, i wont take them for granted, even if they will have center backs missing, there is a certain henry who will b back, and messi as well if not marked properly can cause much damage with his talent. And i wouldnt go for penalties as well, with that fa cup elimination still fresh in the mind…
why asking about Berbatov if you don’t put him in the team? ))
I was really confident about the Arsenal games but Barca is a completely different story. No prognosis from me.
And of course we can paraphrase Cristiano – “Final is a final”
Barca will probably play Toure at CB alongside Pique, Puyol at RB and Sylvinho at LB.I hope Brown gets to play a couple of matches before the final so that he takes the RB spot & Sheasy can play as dmf in place of Tevez in the squad as RedDevil007.
This has been making the news today:
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/09/05/07/SOCCER_Man_Utd_UEFA.html&TEAMHD=soccer
Maybe there is still a chance.And with Barca and Abidal in the same position,you never know.It could be a double appeal by both clubs.
wazza
Sheasy in Central Midfield… You having a laugh fella.
He will look out of his depth!!! Hes ok filling in there for the odd game against the likes of middlesborough, bolton or Blackburn but not bloody Barca!
Why….. Although i do think that oshea is consistant and a good squad player, i do feel he is also one of our weakest players. His passing is poor, he often gives the ball away and doesnt instil confidence when on the ball.
When rio, evra, vidic, carrick, anderson, scholes giggs, and tevez have possession of the ball i dont panic… I know it is unlikly thatthey will give it away or get robbed of possession. With oshea it often is the case that i am supprised if he didnt give it away!
Barca or Chelsea I don’t care. We are Manchester United and we can win against anybody. In some ways I am happy we will play Barca because everybody and their dog has said they have the best team in Europe and Messi is a god and all this rubbish. We all saw what a strong United performance can do to a team that suppposedly plays beautiful football on Tuesday. Annihilate them.
I would now caution everybody to get behind the team for the next three Premiership games and forget about Champions League for the time being. All this glorious talk is firing up City and Arsenal to cause an upset and hand the title to the FSW. We cannnot allow that to happen!
@trevor, agree with you on that one.maybe still hope for Fletch
Since all the chat has gone round to line-ups for the final this is kinda on topic (although I would quite like to see your opinions on this Scott). Like most people I would go for Ronaldo through the middle for essentially the same reasons as against Arsenal – relatively slow CBs, and give him a role relatively free from tracking back. What I’m thinking though is that the few times Ronnie has played through the middle he’s been absolutely sensational, probably only Torres ahead of him if he plays like Tuesday. Since the Tevez deal is looking increasingly unlikely, would anyone else quite like to see a right winger brought in to replace him rather than a striker with Ronaldo spending much more time as a CF? He could still be moved back out wide again where necessary – we’d still have Rooney, Berba and the very promising Welbeck/Macheda to play there. Is it just me who sees this as a possible way forward for the team?
p.s. I love Tevez, he’s scored some unbelievably important goals for us, but ultimately, he’s not quick, he’s got a poor first touch, and although those that he does score are key, they are too few and far between for him to be worth an additional £20m on top of the £10m we’ve already paid.
@Rich
I quite agree, I feel fergie will use rooney and park on the wings to stop the threat on the flanks.
I think ronaldo will play up front and float from one site to another with an attacking midfielder supporting him and making a second striker when possible. I would have tevez for this as he has an incredible workrate
I high work rate is key for me. Barca are dangerous as we all know and the more time we give them on the ball the more damage they will do!
I really like tevez but i more so see him as a third striker. He has heart, and effort and scores the odd imortant goal but infront of goal he has been very inconsistant. Shooting sometimes nearer the floodlight or corner flag tha the goal! This may change if he was a regular and at top confidence.
we can also play Rafael (for Tevez) on the right wing & Park in the cm position for his work rate.there are a lot of permutations but Fergie will definitely start one of Giggsy or Scholesy for Tevez.
Fergie will play Giggs ahead of Fletch in the final, the rest will be the same as the semi.
I meant instead.
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc131/Minstrel_bucket/cupcup.gif
LMFAO
im not convinced piques’ handball was a penalty. should footballers be running around with their hands tucked down beside their thighs like ballet dancers?
unless im going blind, he didnt, in the second he had to react, move his hand towards the ball. he moved it, very slightly, as u would, AWAY from the ball. for me it was a non deliberate, ball to hand.
abidal shouldnt have gone so maybe both handballs wouldnt even have occured anyway. i think they should get over it.
@ bossdem
So if the same decisions happen in the final against Man United and Barca lift the cup you are going to say the same thing and be content we were beaten by a better team?……. I think not!
I would be furious!
For me its simple irespective of whatever team. if your hands are up and you hit the ball stopping a goal scoring oppertunity its a pen!
i hate those chelski scum….but bossdem
Pique was a blatant handball……Barca have even admitted it….that it should have been given.
As for people making abidal out to be like fletcher….yes anelka tripped himself over. But justice was done for abidal….cos HE SHOULD HAVE GOE IN THE FIRST HALF WHEN HE WAS LAST MAN AND TOOK OUT DOGGY WITH APULL OF THE SHIRT AND A TRIP. So infcat he stayed on the pitch 30 mins more than he should have done.
Lets get that right people
Flecther was AN injustice
what colour of shirt are man utd goin to wear in the final?
We are the designated away team,so I guess the white.
trevor and suhayl- wether i,d be upset or not had it happened to united is not an issue. im also not debating wether it was handball or not! im just stating that piques handball was not deliberate. im not totally sure of the rules, but i thought if it was unintentional ball to hand, then its not an offence?
Handball bossdem..pique admitted it today that he got very lucky…and you shouldnt have your hand sticking up so high in the box. And if the ball hadnt hit his hand…anelka would have scored..as he popped the ball round picqe….only for pique to stop it…yes you guessed it…with his hand