Champions League Final thread

[CJ]

some mancs are asking how often we have won the champions league as european cups dont count now.


bitter bitter *******s

[Rigadon]

The difference between Barcelona and Manchester United was clear to see during the Champions League final, as Lionel Messi inspired Pep Guardiola's side to a 3-1 victory.

But the collective effort of the Catalan team was crucial in constructing the win, demonstrated by the following statistics courtesy of Opta.

777 - Total number of passes that Barcelona made in the final, more than double Manchester United's 357. Barca had 69% of overall ball possession.

148 - Passes that Spanish midfielder Xavi completed during the game, a high for the Champions League this season. He misplaced only seven, giving him a completion rate of 95%.

90 - Percentage of passes completed by the Barcelona team. United's was 80%.

60 - Passes between Xavi and Andres Iniesta, the most common pass journey on the pitch. United's most frequent combination was between defender Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic (16).

55 - Number of times Xavi and Iniesta passed to Messi.

18 - Passes made by Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes - two more than Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez.

16 - Times United fouled Barcelona's players. Barcelona did likewise to their opponents on only five occasions.

15 - Dribbles by Messi, of which 10 were successful. Wayne Rooney was the next most frequent dribbler with six.

12 - Shots on target by Barcelona. Messi and Iniesta had three of these each.

11.95 - According to Uefa, distance in kilometres covered by Xavi, the highest in the Barcelona team. Ryan Giggs covered the greatest distance by a United player (11.16km).

1 - Number of shots that Manchester United had on target. This was Rooney's 34th-minute goal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13588273.stm

[Shaggy]

Ferguson asked if he could sign one of Barcelona's players, who would it be. He said Mascherano. Thinks he's ****ing funny, sour old cunt.

[badpiggy]

Love these stats.

Statistcs don't prove anything

[Fernandinho]

FFS, you don't see those figures with Arsenal vs a lot of the **** teams in the league. What a battering!

[peekay]

i think WiW is correct. teams saw them humiliated last night and people wont be scared. but knowing how things work they'll open the campaign with a home match against norwich.

cue a 6 - 0 thumping and all of a sudden sky sports utd wankfest propoganda machine starts again.

but more issues may arise from within the utd camp themselves. players arent stupid, they know when theyve been trounced and they were well and truly second best last night. younger lads like fabio, hernandez will shake it off quickly but its the experienced pros like ferdinand, vidic, giggs, rooney and evra who will know how much better barca were and that apart from the first 10 mins they werent ever in the game.

losing is one thing but being made to look ordinary and second class is quite another.

Howard Webb and his cohorts will be working over time beginning of next season to ensure that the air of invincibility is restores as soon as possible.

[Shaggy]

Love these stats.

[Craig_H]

Posted on RC:

First 10 minutes was clearly the game plan. Press them, give them no space, play the ball wide when we have it, dont try and pass through the midfield, and stretch their defence with width and Hernandez playing on the shoulder of the last man.

This worked for 10 minutes only, but I remember thinking that we cant keep this intensity up for 90 minutes, so my question was - what was Plan B?

**** our pants and concede 3

[Shaggy]

Andrew_Heaton Andy Heaton
Anyone else notice Ferguson's hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly about 75 minutes in? Found it psychologically fascinating.

annabellee0 Fiona
@Andrew_Heaton yup. Plenty tweets about it being alcohol withdrawal symptoms :-D

[Craig_H]

Mancs going back to mancland by train

No plane?

[Craig_H]

Update. They are in the 'Landmark Hotel'

But, they are just leaving...getting on the bus now....go go go...hurry Craig! Abig piece of paper will do for the **** off fergie banner...use black felt tip....i'll look out for you on sky news.

Quick, don't even answer this post..just go now!

If only you'd given me this info an hour ago

[red g]

took a gamble to watch it with a couple of Mancs. great gamble. what a great display of ffotball.

Well and truly owned by that Barca team, just ****ed off they got lucky not to meet them earlier.

[rudedog]

Great seeing Barca totaly humiliate the Mancs last night - their passing and movement was a joy to watch and they could have easily scored 5 or 6.

Ferguson made a bad mistake in not picking Berbatov - his hold up play could have really eased the pressure off them when they were just punting it long.

[Vermilion]

If i had the banner and knew which hotel, i'd do it

Update. They are in the 'Landmark Hotel'

But, they are just leaving...getting on the bus now....go go go...hurry Craig! Abig piece of paper will do for the **** off fergie banner...use black felt tip....i'll look out for you on sky news.

Quick, don't even answer this post..just go now!

[Fernandinho]