Some prefer placing a lone finger to their pursed lips. Others favour cupping an ear as they race down the touchline in front of broken opposition fans. But after Barcelona silenced their critics last night with a scintillating display of football in view of millions all over the globe, they chose dignity. And then one by one, they hauled the Champions League trophy above their heads as cheers reverberated around the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Barca in 2008/2009
Barcelona’s displays in La Liga have had commentators and supporters rubbing their eyes and refusing to believe what they are seeing all season long. Barca have treated records, and seemingly reality itself, with contempt over the past few months. A 6-2 thrashing of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, the most goals a Barcelona team has ever scored in El Clasico, was the high point of a remarkable league campaign comprising 27 wins and 104 goals scored - with one game yet to play.
But after stuttering against Chelsea over two legs in the Champions League and only securing passage to the final in Italy through a late Iniesta strike, critics began to spot cracks in the Catalan armour. As Man United finished their victorious Premier League campaign imperiously and almost invincibly, the English side were widely touted as favourites for European glory.
Why? Barca were missing three first choice defenders in the form of Alves, Abidal and Marquez and the necessary replacements and reshuffles would severely weaken them. Their little genius Messi, a weekly tormentor of opposition backlines in Spain, was yet to open his goal-scoring account against an English opponent in European competition and would struggle to do so again. Chelsea had out-muscled Barcelona at Stamford Bridge and United would be more than capable of the same.
Iniesta and Xavi light up Champions League Final in Rome
And? Each statement a preconception; each blown away by victory last night. The Holy Trinity of Messi, Eto’o and Henry delivered Barcelona their first domestic cup, European cup and league treble. The Catalans now become only the fourth club to achieve such a feat after Celtic, PSV and Man United before them.
But as significant as the goals Barca’s frontline have been, and between them they have notched an astounding 99 in all competitions, it is the two Spaniards behind them who have pulled the strings. As Yaya Toure - Barca’s crushing machine whose challenges are so often a prelude to a goal - told the BBC earlier this week, it is Iniesta and Xavi who make Barca tick: “They are the two greatest in the world for me, I cannot speak highly enough of just how good they are.”
Last night, as has been the case for much of Barca’s season, was the story of two midfields: Iniesta and Xavi, with Busquets patrolling the space behind them, held the ball and dictated the tempo of the game in one, while Anderson, Carrick, Park, Giggs and later Scholes could only chase shadows in the other.
United had started brightly. They were the best team in Europe for nine minutes, but not surprisingly, it was Iniesta who played Eto’o through to round Vidic and poke in Barca’s opening goal soon after. Not to be outdone, it was a pin-point cross from Xavi which found Messi for number two on the 70-minute mark. There was to be no comeback for United on this occasion: this was 2009, not 1999.
What Next for Man United and Barca?
Manchester United, who have posed impossible questions to most sides in England this season, had no answers for Barcelona. Ferguson threw on Carlos Tevez for the ineffective Anderson at half time, with Dimitar Berbatov replacing Park on 66 minutes. Rooney and Ronaldo are rarely joined on the pitch by both Tevez and Berbatov at the same time, but when all four join forces the effect can be devastating - as five second-half goals against Spurs at Old Trafford in April so resoundingly demonstrated.
But while reckless abandon may have a time and a place against a fragile Tottenham side in the Premiership, Barcelona in the Champions League is a totally different proposition. Maybe Ferguson started to believe the hype surrounding his team, or perhaps it was just a spirited gamble. Whether hubris or courage, the fresh legs were not enough; Barcelona were gifted the space to exert an even tighter grip on the game and grabbed their second goal.
Ferguson deserves credit for his gracious attitude after the final whistle, admitting to Sky’s TV cameras his charges were “beaten by a better team.” For Ferguson to match Bob Paisley and claim the third European Cup he craves so much, there are still lessons to be learned. For the 21-year-old Lionel Messi and the rest of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side, it seems there are still more footballing lessons to be handed out.
