22 April, 2008

Sierra Express

Barcelona Leave Their Shooting Boots At Home:
Barcelona 0-0 Manchester United

Barcelona had by far the bulk of the possession and the chances, but on relatively few occasions did they really make United feel that they'd been let out of jail with a 0-0 draw.

For while the visitors offered relatively little, they did enough to contain the blaugrana in the attack, meaning that for the third consecutive match the Camp Nou faithful had to endure a 0-0 draw that probably should not have been. That said, there was no shortage of excitement, even if it wasn't the sort that either fan base would have wanted.

First Half

The drama began within two minutes. As the ball came in from the flank, Cristiano Ronaldo's header offered little, but Gabriel Milito flailed at the ball with his hands.

Who else would take the resulting spot kick but CR7? Indeed he did, but as he sent Valdes the wrong way, the ball flew high, wide, and off the stanchion. A let-off for Barcelona, and one that noticeably boosted the atmosphere. It also sparked Barcelona into life. From the third minute to the twenty-fifth, the blaugrana were well on top as they pinned United back into their own half. Messi and Eto'o were particularly active in weaving their way into the box, but there was no final ball as the Mancunians defended deep and clawed the chances away each time.

That was a recurring theme. Eleven minutes in, Messi brilliantly teed up Iniesta on the left, but the latter's cutback was ignored by Xavi, who clearly felt that another blue and red shirt was incoming. It was not.

United were wise to this kind of cutback play and prevented a certain goal 25 minutes in when they hoofed clear a Xavi pass that would have found no shortage of takers in the middle of the area. Indeed, the men in white were doing far more defending than attacking, but on one of their rare sojourns forward they may have felt that they were denied a penalty. Ronaldo took advantage of a poor pass by Iniesta, surged forward, and seemed to collapse under the challenge of Márquez in the box. The ball rolled clear - the referee waved play on.

The game became bogged down a bit after that as Barcelona's invention up the flanks dried up a bit.  However, they had the odd chance from the set piece, Deco coming close with a free-kick as the break wore in.

Second Half

Barcelona started the second half in brilliant fashion with slick passing on the edge of the United area. With the likes of Carrick and Scholes posted missing, Messi was allowed the run of the final third in terms of width, and Brown had to do well to block his effort five minutes after the restart.

Messi then teed up Zambrotta for a corner, with the Italian calling van der Sar into action as United stood off. Eto'o had another golden chance just two minutes later after a quick-thinking move from Messi and Iniesta, but Eto'o, with van der Sar at his mercy, inexplicably hit the side netting.

Indeed, that waws a leitmotiv for Barcelona's evening: plenty of possession, some nice passing, but absolutely no end product.

United, meanwhile, were often restricted to the long ball, and this certainly did not suit the likes of Tevez: Carrick actually had the best chance of the early second half for them. However, coach Ferguson waited before making changes: the first alteration was Barcelona's as Bojan came on for Messi 62 minutes in.

That added a bit of energy to proceedings, but Barcelona were still slightly too ponderous heading up to the final third, allowing United to build their back line effectively. The Red Devils had another break forward twenty minutes from time as Ronaldo cut in from the right, but he found himself tackled by Abidal: no penalty claim that time, except from Ronaldo himself.

Nani came on for Rooney, who had scarcely been involved for most of the evening, and Barcelona went for broke by throwing on Henry for Deco, with thirteen minutes left. Clearly both managers had their mind on nicking a late goal, but at this stage it was hard to see where it was going to come from. After all, Barcelona had utterly dominated possession and chances but only hit the target thrice: United had managed just a handful of opportunities all evening. Henry, though, stung van der Sar's gloves with a vicious strike within five minutes of coming on - a salutary reminder that the visitors hadn't finished the job yet.

Tevez linked up with Ronaldo and Hargreaves at the other end for a rare piece of attacking fluency, but Milito was able to clear and Barcelona countered. However, by the time they'd worked it down to Henry on the left, there were already five white shirts in the box and the Frenchman's efort was blocked. Bojan seized the rebound, but he found himself tackled by the no-nonsense Evra. Soon afterwards Iniesta drove a shot towards the bottom right from range, but van der Sar was its equal, despite being partially unsighted.

Time was running out and with the introduction of Giggs, it seemed as though Ferguson's men were now happy enough with the draw. Barça kept plugging away, meanwhile, but despite good interplay between the midfield - which kept its shape despite the removal of Deco, who was clearly tired - few chances presented themselves. Set-pieces helped, but van der Sar dealt easily enough with a long-ranger from Henry two minutes from time. That, then, was that. In the end, it was a case of no end product for the hosts and a job adequately - not well, but adequately - done for the visitors. United will now bring Barcelona to their lair of record-breaking, while the blaugrana will reflect on chances lost.

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