How Barcelona magic routed the Manchester United army

There is no kind way of saying this and no point in pulling any punches.

Manchester United were on the wrong end of one of the most one-sided Champions League finals there has ever been last night.

They marched into the Stadio Olimpico with dreams of becoming the first team to retain the trophy but they were sent away with a flea in their ear for their impudence.

Football, bloody hell, as someone once said after a night like this.

Barcelona did not just outplay Sir Alex Ferguson's side. They humiliated them. They embarrassed them.

Between Samuel Eto'o's sickening tenth minute counter punch and Lionel Messi's magnificent late header, Barcelona taught United a lesson in the beautiful game.

None of what happened here makes United a bad side but it does put their ambitions of starting a Real Madrid-style dynasty that wins the trophy over and over again into rather sobering perspective.

United have played some brilliant, brilliant football this season but history only remembers the biggest battles of all.

And when United came up against Pep Guardiola's great entertainers, they did not so much crumble as shatter into tiny pieces.

Even taking Barcelona's majesty into account, United were desperately disappointing. All except Cristiano Ronaldo shrank away from history as it beckoned them.

Too many of them chose last night to have their worst game of the season. Wayne Rooney looked miserable and isolated, Michael Carrick misplaced pass after pass.

Ferguson does not make selections on sentiment but he had admitted before the game that he did not have the heart to leave Ji-Sung Park out of the squad for a second final in succession. Park got his chance this time but he didn't take it. He looked out of his depth.

And the usual authority of Nemanja Vidic disappeared so completely that it looked like he was having a nightmare he was playing Fernando Torres again.

United played as if they were hypnotised by Barcelona's creative beauty, giving the ball away time and time again so that Xavi and Iniesta and Lionel Messi could start weaving their web anew.

United looked shorn of all their energy. It was as if Ferguson had played his first team at Hull on Sunday after all and their legs were still heavy. But then chasing shadows on a sultry night is bound to take it out of you.

United started well but they gave the ball away for the first time in the 10th minute and, well, they never really got it back.

After that, Barcelona held on to it like it was a precious jewel, a jewel to be polished and loved and caressed and never, ever surrendered lightly.

When Barcelona are in the ascendancy, they are merciless. Their passing and their ability to keep possession saps the strength from their opponents.

Their struggle to impose their style on Chelsea in the semi-finals gave United's admirers false hope that Ferguson's side would be too strong for them, too.

But after those first ten minutes, when Ronaldo started like a tornado ripping up everything in front of him, Barcelona took hold of the game and never let go.

Xavi and Iniesta were mesmerising but Messi will quite rightly command most of the headlines. He drove Barcelona on and the way he dispatched Xavi's cross for Barcelona's clinching goal with his head showed that he, like Ronaldo, can lay claim to being the complete forward.

The defeat seemed particularly brutal because Ferguson and United's supporters had convinced themselves that they could expand their empire here in the Eternal City.

That they could add a fourth European Cup to their tally and close the gap on the teams who have won more, Liverpool, AC Milan and Real Madrid.

Instead, Barcelona are level with them now with three victories and after the way they played last night, the Catalans' claim on football's future seems stronger than United's.

Ferguson will have to wait, too, until he can draw level with former Liverpool boss Bob Paisley's record of three European Cup victories.

After the match, Ferguson was honest about United's shortcomings. He described their defending as "shoddy" and admitted that their carelessness in possession was "disappointing".

"When we had the ball," Ferguson said, "we didn't use it well enough. We knew before the game what a good football team they are. They are one of the best at what they do.

"It is a credit to them that they pursue their policy of keeping the ball and they don't change. Guardiola has done a fine job in his first season in charge. He has not changed the philosophy of his team and that is a credit to him, too."

If there was any consolation for United routed army of fans last night, it came when one brave journalist attempted to broach the subject of whether any thoughts of retirement had flitted across Sir Alex's mind.

"How long have you known me?" Sir Alex spat back at him. "Stupid bloody question."

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