Champions League Final 2009: Manchester United vs Barcelona.Wed 27th May. Rome.

[Minder]

The stadium got a "refit" last year for the Champions Legue final which reuced the capacity to 72,000.

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Just back from Rome, unreal experience....no ticket but got to watch the game in  a united supporters zone. Plenty of dodgy tickets floating around outside the stadium, i heard the going rate of the tickets were €1,000, the cheapest that i heard someone buy 1 for was €400.

Barcelona were worthy winners of the trophy (maybe Chelsea fans will contest this), however i believe that performance on Wednesday night cemented their place as the no 1 side in Europe.

The drinks ban put a bit of a dampner on things, though I suppose with no violence or disturbances of note in and around the city it can be said to have been a success.

No complaints from me stiffler.  Barcelona are a better team than Chelsea, it's just in a two leg tie Chelsea had to play a certain way to try to stifle their creative players...and it nearly worked.  But I will admit if Chelsea played Barca ten times in a season it would more than likely be 7 wins to Barcs, two draws and a win for Chelsea.

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Someone mentioned earlier about Barce's values, and the fact that they haven't 'hoored' out their jersey. I'll be honest, and say I am being a bit harsh here but this 'more than a club' thing sickens my hole.

Chelsea are more than a club to me, and I am sure likewise Lpool, United, Villa etc to whom it concerns.

Anyhow I digress. Apparently Barce have UNICEF on their jersies to dilute any bite when they eventually 'hoor' out their jersies in the next season or two.

This "mes que un club" thing is taking on a life of its own.  True, Barca is owned by the club members, "socios" as they are known in Spain...so is Real Madrid and indeed most other soccer clubs in Spain.  True, Barca puts UNICEF on its shirts and does not take sponsorship money, rather it makes a donation to UNICEF.  However critics of Barca in Spain would say thay can afford to do this because they are paid so much by NIke for the "swoosh" on their shirts...effectively a shirt sponsor.  Also it is said in Spain that Barca put UNICEF on the shirts because no company would pay what they were asking for traditional shirt sponsorship.  Another thing that makes them different is that in Spain clubs sell the TV rights to their games individually not as a package as in England.  Therefore the rights to a Barca v Real Madrid game will go for huge money and most of that money goes to Barca and Rela Madrid whereas Getafe v Valladolid will sell for relatively small money.  The result is that the big clubs get richer through TV deals whereas in England the TV money is more evenly spead eg Burnley will get £50 mill () just for being in the Premiership.  Lastly Barca do not completely spit on the commercial element of soccer.  They have very lucrative sponsoship deals with Caixa Bank and Estrella Dorada beer to name just two.

The more than a club thing comes from the days of the Franco regime when the Camp Nou was one of the few places where the Catalan language could be spoken openly as the authorities were trying to suppress it.  Barca FC became a focus for Catalan nationalism and resistance to the "occupying" regime...sound familiar???

[nrico2006]

Warrior my bollox
He is constantly rolling around on the ground & he is an expert in time wasting - the only Barca player to fcuk me off last night.
After the challenge with VDS he was rolling on the ground. But like Lazarus he rose from the dead & made it to the other end of the pitch in double quick time.
Then some sniper took him out after the ball went out of play
*from a p1ssed off Utd fan*

I always thought Puyol was a tough, warrior type defender myself but after Wednesday night its obvious that he is just as much a continental pansy as Robben.  The so called 2 foot lunge for Ronaldo didn't make contact with the man and he made a complete meal of it.  There was another time when he was rolling around only to hop up and away when he realised the ref wasn't going to blow his whistle.

[Rossie11]

1st post since the match.

Delighted Barca won it in style.
Had 4-1 and 3-0 backed so bit peed off they didnt take the chances they created.

The last month of the seaon was probably the biggest in their history.
If they had lost the league and CL the way they play the game would have been questioned and they
could have changed their system and gone down the route of a Drogba type hitman up front in future.
This would have been a shame.

Xavi and Messi had great games but for me their main man is Iniesta.
They blip in league form in season was when he was injured.

In the 2006 final v Gunners people will always remember the Larrson substitute as been the turning point.
But Iniesta was also hugely influential when he came on.

He is pure class and it took until 10.30pm last Wednesday for Jamie Redknapp to acknowledge what a good player he is.. 
Cousin Frank might have rival as the best centre midfielder in world.. 

[Bensars]

Warrior my bollox
He is constantly rolling around on the ground & he is an expert in time wasting - the only Barca player to fcuk me off last night.
After the challenge with VDS he was rolling on the ground. But like Lazarus he rose from the dead & made it to the other end of the pitch in double quick time.
Then some sniper took him out after the ball went out of play
*from a p1ssed off Utd fan*

I always thought Puyol was a tough, warrior type defender myself but after Wednesday night its obvious that he is just as much a continental pansy as Robben.  The so called 2 foot lunge for Ronaldo didn't make contact with the man and he made a complete meal of it.  There was another time when he was rolling around only to hop up and away when he realised the ref wasn't going to blow his whistle.

In the tackle with VDS you could clearly see that he twisted his ankle

[full back]

Warrior my bollox
He is constantly rolling around on the ground & he is an expert in time wasting - the only Barca player to fcuk me off last night.
After the challenge with VDS he was rolling on the ground. But like Lazarus he rose from the dead & made it to the other end of the pitch in double quick time.
Then some sniper took him out after the ball went out of play
*from a p1ssed off Utd fan*

I always thought Puyol was a tough, warrior type defender myself but after Wednesday night its obvious that he is just as much a continental pansy as Robben.  The so called 2 foot lunge for Ronaldo didn't make contact with the man and he made a complete meal of it.  There was another time when he was rolling around only to hop up and away when he realised the ref wasn't going to blow his whistle.

In the tackle with VDS you could clearly see that he twisted his ankle

There wasnt much wrong with him when he sprinted back up the field or when he went down straight away when there was a break in play. When the referee told him to leave the field there was fcuk all wrong with him 

[Minder]

The grapes are starting to become more and more sour.

[Bensars]

There may not have been, however  you could clearly see the ankle go from under him.

In the same position if it had have been Ronaldo and united had been leading you would have had to lift the hoarding to allow him to roll under them.

[corn02]

Warrior my bollox
He is constantly rolling around on the ground & he is an expert in time wasting - the only Barca player to fcuk me off last night.
After the challenge with VDS he was rolling on the ground. But like Lazarus he rose from the dead & made it to the other end of the pitch in double quick time.
Then some sniper took him out after the ball went out of play
*from a p1ssed off Utd fan*

I always thought Puyol was a tough, warrior type defender myself but after Wednesday night its obvious that he is just as much a continental pansy as Robben.  The so called 2 foot lunge for Ronaldo didn't make contact with the man and he made a complete meal of it.  There was another time when he was rolling around only to hop up and away when he realised the ref wasn't going to blow his whistle.

In the tackle with VDS you could clearly see that he twisted his ankle

There wasnt much wrong with him when he sprinted back up the field or when he went down straight away when there was a break in play. When the referee told him to leave the field there was fcuk all wrong with him 

To be fair FB, in THAT incident he was caught, didn't like his rollfor Ronaldo's tackle.

[full back]

Warrior my bollox
He is constantly rolling around on the ground & he is an expert in time wasting - the only Barca player to fcuk me off last night.
After the challenge with VDS he was rolling on the ground. But like Lazarus he rose from the dead & made it to the other end of the pitch in double quick time.
Then some sniper took him out after the ball went out of play
*from a p1ssed off Utd fan*

I always thought Puyol was a tough, warrior type defender myself but after Wednesday night its obvious that he is just as much a continental pansy as Robben.  The so called 2 foot lunge for Ronaldo didn't make contact with the man and he made a complete meal of it.  There was another time when he was rolling around only to hop up and away when he realised the ref wasn't going to blow his whistle.

In the tackle with VDS you could clearly see that he twisted his ankle

There wasnt much wrong with him when he sprinted back up the field or when he went down straight away when there was a break in play. When the referee told him to leave the field there was fcuk all wrong with him 

To be fair FB, in THAT incident he was caught, didn't like his rollfor Ronaldo's tackle.

He may have been caught corn, but he was up like a rocket when he realised play wasnt going to be stopped then made a miraculous recovery again when he realised he would have to go off the pitch.
Cant have been that bad


BTW, not sour grapes at all minder
Suprised you have time to type because I would say you have been w4nking over Barca from Wed night

[Main Street]

He may have been caught corn, but he was up like a rocket when he realised play wasnt going to be stopped then made a miraculous recovery again when he realised he would have to go off the pitch.
Cant have been that bad

Not that bad?
Would you ever cop on.
Not bad enough to stop Puyol from resuming his defensive position in a CL final.

Ronaldo yellow carded for a clear foul on Puyol, insane to think that there is any question about that.
Ronaldo's 2 footed lunge, foul, looked awful  but not that much to moan about by Puyol,
Puyol had neatly pulled the ball back and Ronaldo's lunge looked worse than it was.

Overall, Puyol had a superb game at right full, a positive attacking influential performance in a top class team.

[Minder]

Warrior my bollox
He is constantly rolling around on the ground & he is an expert in time wasting - the only Barca player to fcuk me off last night.
After the challenge with VDS he was rolling on the ground. But like Lazarus he rose from the dead & made it to the other end of the pitch in double quick time.
Then some sniper took him out after the ball went out of play
*from a p1ssed off Utd fan*

I always thought Puyol was a tough, warrior type defender myself but after Wednesday night its obvious that he is just as much a continental pansy as Robben.  The so called 2 foot lunge for Ronaldo didn't make contact with the man and he made a complete meal of it.  There was another time when he was rolling around only to hop up and away when he realised the ref wasn't going to blow his whistle.

In the tackle with VDS you could clearly see that he twisted his ankle

There wasnt much wrong with him when he sprinted back up the field or when he went down straight away when there was a break in play. When the referee told him to leave the field there was fcuk all wrong with him 

To be fair FB, in THAT incident he was caught, didn't like his rollfor Ronaldo's tackle.

He may have been caught corn, but he was up like a rocket when he realised play wasnt going to be stopped then made a miraculous recovery again when he realised he would have to go off the pitch.
Cant have been that bad


BTW, not sour grapes at all minder
Suprised you have time to type because I would say you have been w4nking over Barca from Wed night

No wan*ing on a school night, the weekend is here though

Always loves watching Barcelona play against anyone, the fact that they were able to do it in a Euopean Cup Final against Utd just made it orgasmic.

[full back]

He may have been caught corn, but he was up like a rocket when he realised play wasnt going to be stopped then made a miraculous recovery again when he realised he would have to go off the pitch.
Cant have been that bad

Not that bad?
Would you ever cop on.
Not bad enough to stop Puyol from resuming his defensive position in a CL final.

Ronaldo yellow carded for a clear foul on Puyol, insane to think that there is any question about that.
Ronaldo's 2 footed lunge, foul, looked awful  but not that much to moan about by Puyol,
Puyol had neatly pulled the ball back and Ronaldo's lunge looked worse than it was.

Overall, Puyol had a superb game at right full, a positive attacking influential performance in a top class team.

Im talking about the time he went down in the incident with VDS FFS

[Main Street]

He made contact with VDS and limped out of it.
What's the deal about that?
Run of the mill stuff in a game, nothing contrived about it.