Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United advised football pundits and fans not to bet against his team for the Manchester vs Barcelona Champions League 2011 final game

The heart of Football world will stop beating at Saturday and the darling of the soccer experts because of its attractive passing style, Barcelona is a favourite going into Saturday’s final at London’s renowned Wembley Stadium, but beating the Catalan side is more than a faint hope for the English champions Manchester United.

Barcelona vs Manchester United Champions League Final 2011 Preview

Barcelona isn’t totally invulnerable though. Jose Mourinho showed one way to defeat Barcelona last season, when he was coaching İnter Milan to a Champions League title. Jose Mourinho had his experienced players stay back and attract Barcelona’s offensive fury on itself and then try to score on the counter-attack.Much like an underdog boxer seeking for a lucky punch. and that worked like a charm, as Inter eliminated Barcelona in a Champions League semifinal and went on to win the title.

Jose Mourinho didn’t have as much success this season with Real Madrid in the semifinals against Barcelona. Once again, he had his team playing deep, with the strategy of abandoning defence for attack in the last 20 minutes. But his players seemingly decided to try to kick Barcelona out of the game, and a red card ruined the strategy. Barcelona went on to win the first game of a two-game semifinal 2-0 and needed only a draw in the last game to advance.

Beating Barcelona hasn’t been all that rare. Inter did it last season, Manchester United managed it back in 2008, and in 2009 Chelsea disrupted Barcelona’s fluid play was clearly the better team on the pitch and only some bad refereeing by Tom Henning Ovrebo saved Barcelona at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium.

Barcelona vs Arsenal Champions League Match was a close call for Barcelona

Earlier this season, Arsenal was 3-2 ahead on aggregate deep into the second game against Barcelona in the first knockout round. But a ridiculous red card to Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie put an end to the London club’s hopes. Xavi Hernandez brought Barcelona level and Lionel Messi scored on a penalty a couple of minutes later to put Barcelona through to quarter finals.

Alex Ferguson isn’t talking about his strategy and giving away his plans how to stop Barcelona but it wouldn’t be surprising to see United trying to press Barcelona’s defenders deep up the field to disrupt the passing game especially in the midfield. Although Manchester United players are not as well suited to play that defensive as the Inter players did one year ago, this years Manchester squad can be quite defensive minded on some occasions, if needed.

Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger believes Manchester United can benefit from the weariness of Barcelona players in the final, claiming the Spanish champion’s players seemed to have been fatigued in recent weeks.

“I believe against Barcelona, on what I have seen in the last three weeks, there will never be a better moment maybe to win it against them,” Wenger said. “They look quite exhausted and Manchester United look quite sharp physically in the last three or four games.

“For me, it takes three weeks to recover physically. I’m not sure Barcelona will have had enough time. They looked on their knees, so I would give United a good chance.”

Wenger pointed out that playing in London will be an advantage for United and that while Barcelona probably will have  most of the ball possession, much of that is what the Arsenal manager has referred to as “sterile domination,” passing the ball square with little penetration of rival defences.

There’s no doubt Barcelona’s players have had a long season, they have played in more games than their counterpart. As well as competing for the league title, the Spanish cup tournament and the Champions League, many players also suit up for Spain, which won last summer’s World Cup. Those players haven’t had enough time off for more than a year.

“Considering what these players have come through, it’s incredible,” Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola gave credit to his players. “They just keep going and going. Many of the players started the season on the back of a World Cup.”

Here is the Question in this  Barcelona vs Manchester United Champions League Final preview :

Will there be enough gas left in Barcelona ‘s tanks for one more top effort against Manchester United?

 

Next: Player vs player analysis for the Barcelona vs Manchester United Champions League Final Clash..

 

NationalTurk – Sports / John Steel
john-steel@nationalturk.com

 

[adrotate group=”20″ banner=”26″] [adrotate group=”20″ banner=”22″]