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Match

Marcador del partit

Date: Tuesday, 29 Apr
Competition: ???label.competicio1???
Stadium: Old Trafford, Manchester

Resultat:

Manchester U.: 1
FC Barcelona: 0

Match report

Match Report
Pre-Match

Match Report

More info

The goal

1-0 Scholes (14')

One goal away from Moscow (1-0)

Jordi Clos

Barça are out of the Champions League after losing 1-0 at Old Trafford. A Paul Scholes goal decided a vibrant and totally open encounter, in which Barça’s brave ambitions went unrewarded.

Barça’s Champions League challenge came to end this evening away to Manchester United. They gave it their all and took every risk they had to, but once again the lack of goals proved costly. A thunderous strike from Scholes after Barça had dominated the first quarter of an hour put the home side in the driving seat, but Rijkaard’s knew that if they could equalise, they would qualify by virtue of the away goals rule. But it wasn't to be, and Barça's unbeaten record in Europe this season came to a sad end.

Scholes destroys Barça’s promising start

From the outset, it was clear that Barça were going for it in a big way. They piled on the pressure from the very first minute, and Manchester United were held back in their own half as they had been at the Camp Nou. It was the dream start, but disaster struck after 14 minutes when Scholes latched onto an unfortunate clearance from Zambrotta and slammed the ball into the top left corner from 25 metres, leaving Valdés well beaten.

End to end stuff

The goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Barça, while the Red Devils burst into life and started creating all kinds of problems for the Barcelona defence. The action was relentless, and Barça picked themselves up after a brilliant individual run from Leo Messi, followed by a Park effort for United that just went wide of the post, and two dangerous shots from Deco that missed by inches.

Intensity rising

The game pressed on at the same extraordinary pace, with Nani almost scoring from a header after 40 minutes, and Milito going close with a similar chance at the other end. The first 45 minutes had offered some memorable football from two great sides desperate to secure their places in Moscow, and the second half proved to be just as much of a thriller. Deco led the Barcelona midfield in style, and the United fans held their breath every time an electrifying Messi came near the ball as the visitors pressed forwards in search of that elusive equaliser.

No miracles

Manchester United decided to withdraw and keep things tight at the back, yet still looked dangerous on the counter attack, which was how Tevez almost scored in the 57th minute, but Valdés got a hand to the ball. Henry and Bojan were sent on to add some new spark to the Barcelona attack, and the Frenchman came frustratingly close to scoring with a 78th minute header that brought out the best in Van der Sar.

As the minutes ticked by, the tension reached boiling point, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry spearheading their respective sides’ attempts. But try as they could, Barça just could not score, and the game drew to a close. They can go out of the competition with their heads held high, but it will be the Premiership side, and not FC Barcelona, that will be enjoying a trip to Moscow in May.

Preview

The team won’t be alone

The players will have the support of 3,686 Barça fans who have made their way to England to cheer their team on in the Theatre of Dreams.

The dream depends on Old Trafford

Jordi Clos

Manchester Utd and Barça are to dispute tonight (8:45 pm, R@dio Barça) a place in the final of the Champions League. In spite of the 0-0 result in the first leg, Rijkaard’s men showed then that they are still playing well in this competition.

Old Trafford is the last obstacle before the final of the Champions League which is Barça’s only remaining hope for winning a title this season. Despite the 0-0 final score, the image on display in the first leg at the Camp Nou and the feeling of superiority over Manchester United gives the team confidence and hope. In the first ninety minutes of the tie the Catalans kept up the form that has brought them to the semi-finals, and a victory or a score draw tonight would take them to Moscow.

Different setting

United appeared to be in much better shape going into the tie, especially based on domestic league results. However a week ago Barça were on top form and able to nullify the enormous potential of the English side through effort and keeping hold of the ball. The only thing missing was more precision in front of goal. Rijkaard’s men have shown what they can do, and not only last Wednesday but also in their previous ten Champions League matches. Their European stats are identical to those of Manchester United who are today expected to play a more attacking game as goals could be worth their weight in gold in this match.

The same Barça

In the return leg of the semi-final Barça won’t have the backing of the Camp Nou but will be going for broke at Old Trafford, which is also called the Theatre of Dreams. The ground and the opponents are impressive but both Barça manager Frank Rijkaard and his players, including Deco, say that Barça will approach the game in the same way as they did the first leg. Now mathematically out of the running for the League, the Champions League is their main goal. Rijkaard rotated his players for last Saturday’s game in La Coruña and is missing the suspended Márquez, who has been replaced by Puyol, and the injured Ronaldinho and Jorquera.

United want to get back to winning ways

Manchester United, by contrast, are still chasing two trophies. Apart from the Champions League, which they haven’t won since 1999, on Saturday things got tougher in the Premier League with defeat away at Chelsea (2-1) who are now on the same number of points. Both at Camp Nou and at Stamford Bridge the Red Devils played very conservatively, something which is not all that common when they take the field at Old Trafford.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s main worries are Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic, who both had to be taken off in the Chelsea game due to injury.