The final scoreline on Saturday said 3-1. But that was kind. It could have been worse, far worse, for Alex Ferguson’s players. They weren’t just beaten, they were humbled. Not merely outplayed and out-thought, but utterly outclassed, too.
“In my time as manager, it’s the best team I’ve faced,” said Ferguson, who is a quarter-century, and counting, at the United helm.
Not that there’s any shame in being overshadowed by perfection. United’s white-shirted worker-ants, as one expects of any team fielded by Ferguson, a master motivator, did not surrender, did not stop running, did not let their heads droop. They dignified themselves by not losing their tempers, which would have been so easy because Barcelona rarely shares the ball. Barca’s winning recipe includes a big dollop of selfishness.
Once it had snuffed out United’s spirited start to the match, Barca’s triumph quickly started to take on an air of inevitability. Even Wayne Rooney’s cleverly worked and sweetly struck goal on 34 minutes could only delay, not change, United’s fate.
Ferguson once coined the term “carousel” to describe Barca’s dizzying passing game. At Wembley, it span ever quicker as the match wore on. Between them, Barca’s super-trio of Messi and midfield partners Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez completed 305 passes — four more than the entire United team.
So if Barca can do this to mighty United twice in three years, then what hope is there next season for them and all the other teams in Europe? Not much. Not, that is, if Pep Guardiola sticks around.
The Barca manager has done more than take an already good team and make it nigh-on unbeatable, he is presiding over what looks like the makings of a dynasty. In three years, Guardiola has 10 titles. He spoke wearily before the match of the mental and physical toll exacted by leading a club of such high expectations, which fueled suspicions that he may move elsewhere. Still, it’s not a stretch to think that in another three years, his title-tally could be doubled if he stays.
Messi, remember, only turns 24 next month. There are plenty more goals, plenty more goal-making passes, left in the speedy little legs of the Argentine who finished as the Champions League top scorer for the third season running and who must now be a dead-cert for a third consecutive world player of the year award.
Messi conjured his goal at Wembley out of nothing, really.
A pass from Iniesta, a sprint into the box, a shot so fast that it caught everyone off-guard. It was now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t magic and gave Barca the lead for good. That made 12 goals in the Champions League this season for Messi, matching Ruud van Nistelrooy’s single-season record of 2002/2003.
“Lionel is the best player I have seen and probably the best I will ever see,” said Guardiola.
Amen to that.
For United, the future looks less certain. Ryan Giggs won’t get any younger, nor will Paul Scholes, and Edwin van der Sar didn’t get the winner’s medal he hoped for in his last match.
Ferguson has rebuilding work to do.
Barcelona has hegemony to enjoy.
