Saturday, May 28, 2011

Barcelona Defeats Manchester United To Win UEFA Cup

(UEFA.com)
Barcelona dominated Manchester United to win the UEFA Cup 3-1
After defeating Manchester United 3-1, F.C. Barcelona has been crowned the champions of Europe. Before this year, Barcelona had only won the UEFA Champions League three times. The last time Barcelona won was when they were led by Ronaldinho, Eto'o, and Ibrahimovic. Barcelona is now led by Messi, Xavi, and David Villa after the past three players left the team.

Barcelona advanced to the finals after defeating their rivals Real Madrid in a two game aggregate while, Manchester defeated Schalke.

Barcelona is managed by Josep "Pep" Guardiola and is led by striker Leo Messi. They have arguably the best offense in Europe, with players like David Villa, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, and of course Messi.

On the other hand, Manchester United is managed by the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, and is led by Wayne Rooney.

Despite the match being played in England's famous Wembley Stadium, the Barcelona fans outnumbered and out-cheered the United fans throughout the match.

From the opening kickoff, Barcelona dominated all aspects of the match. They controlled the pace of the match, outshot Manchester United 22-4, and had dominant possession of the ball. Out of Barcelona's 22 shots, 12 were on goal while Manchester only had one shot on goal, which happened to be Rooney's goal.

Barcelona had many chances early to open up the game, but didn't get their first goal until the 27th minute. Xavi dribbled the ball up to Manchester's box before passing it off to Pedro who had a wide open net. Pedro passed it by Van Der Sar to give Barcelona a 1-0 lead.

Manchester had no energy or will to win throughout the match, but tied up the game 1-1 in the 34th minute. After a give-and-go close to the sideline, Rooney broke into the middle of the field. Rooney passed it up to Giggs who then played it back to him inside the box. Rooney placed it right in the corner to tie up the game. It would be Manchester's only goal of the game, as it was all Barcelona from there.

In the 42nd minute right before half, David Villa took the ball down the sideline and passed it to Messi in front of the goal. Messi wasn't able to get a good touch on the ball, and it went off to the side of the net. The half would end 1-1.

In the 52nd minute, after a missed strike, Messi had the ball at the top of the box and fired at the net. The ball went off a Manchester United defender and Barcelona was rewarded a corner kick. Two minutes later, Messi would score from distance.

Later, Barcelona had a great chance in the 64th minute after a through-ball into the box. Barcelona crossed the ball into the middle, but the shot was deflected out. Two minutes later, Iniesta would shoot a rocket from the top of the box, but it went straight to Van Der Sar.

Barcelona would finally cap off the game in the 68th minute. Leo Messi tiptoed through the Manchester defense, and after a deflected shot, the ball went straight to David Villa who placed the ball in the upper 90.

After some subs, Manchester United tried to spark up of their offense, but had no success. When the final whistle blew it was 3-1 Barcelona.

After losing the Copa Del Rey to their rivals Real Madrid,Barcelona claimed the UEFA Cup, giving Spain complete dominance this year. The Copa Del Rey is similar to England's FA Cup, which is just a country's own tournament.

Two years ago, Barcelona topped Manchester 2-0 and beat them again this year 3-1 to win the UEFA Champions League.

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