Well, just under 90 mins to kick-off - the Man U fans should be getting on their trains for Wembley shortly.

Originally Posted by: llamedos 

My chopper's going to be about half an hour  

Originally Posted by: SEMerc 

What does your wife think?

Shocking. Everyone knows real support comes from the armchair at home and clicking the 'like' button on Facebook 👅

For 33 mins, Man U were being handed their footballing ass. It was embarrassing at times how much they were being outplayed.

And then they showed just why they've won so much silverware in recent times - and especially why they've won the league this year whilst playing like a mid-table side for long periods in most games. They just have a that knack, that sporadic instinctive understanding between players that can conjour up a goal when it's needed most.

Justice served in the second half - although 3-1 flattered Man U.

I think the MoM award should have gone to Scholes for managing not to get sent off in a whole 14 minutes.

Barcelona did indeed outclass Man Utd tonight, and yes I did take great pleasure in watching it.

Mens vs boys stuff. If anything United have gone backwards since their 2009 drubbing.

Vidic was magnificant. Quite frankly, he's the only Utd player who would get into this Barca team.

United fans, quick, if you switch to ITV plus 1 its still 1-1 and all to play for.

What does that say about the English league

We've known since early in the season that this Man U side have been pretty ordinary and have ground results out, even being outplayed by apparent lesser teams for long periods - especially away from their Salford home. And yet Chelsea (who looked on a different planet in the first couple of months of the season) and Arsenal, who seemed to be coming up strongly on the rails with a couple of months to go both stumbled like drunken bums and Citeh, for all their loadsamoney, never looked like mounting a challenge.

Yet Man U made steady progress with little resistance through to the ECL final.

Where the hell does that leave us? Are Barca really that good?

It's always helpful to face a godawful team like Schalke in the SF.

At the moment, I'd sat that this Barca team are every bit as good as the AC Milan team that won back-to-back European Cups just over 20 years ago, and I'm sure many of us here will recall just how strong a side they were. This Barcelona team could go on to dominate for quite a while yet.

Probably the most one sided final since this. Goal number three (at around 2:50) is well worthy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PVioPzNGZ8

mourinho's tactics are seen to be the only ones to employ against them . you either try and kick them out of the game or you lose. you have no other choice. the most incredible side we've seen - possibly ever. their retention of the ball is amazing - especially when they dont have it (which isnt as daft as it reads)

Totally Dominant display by Barca who did make the Champions of England look like footballing chumps. When the final whistle went cameras scanned across the faces of some Man U players...it was a look of relief. Barca totally dazzled their opponents with their neat quick short passing and movement...United were punch drunk. I actually at one point tried to count the Barca players as it seemed they had one or two extra on the pitch always having time and space.

Hard to analyse where Man U went wrong or looked so poor, Hernandez was a passenger..would Man U have been better playing with a midfield 5 and leaving Rooney up front on his own..? No..it wouldnt have made any difference as Barca were far too good. The scoreline did flatter Man U it could have been a wider margin. Vidic showed what a real class act he was the only player of Utd to do so.

SAF...congratulated the Barca team and openly admitted that his team were no match. The challenege he has set himself is to create a team that can match Barca.....to do that will be incredibly difficult. Where are players as good as Iniesta, xavi, Villa etc and the worlds best player Messi..? Its a tough challenge tho one that SAF will relish...the CL final is over won or lost its history.

I may be wrong here, but didn't Inter Milan knock Barca out of the CL last season while Mourinho was their manager?

Yep. Jose parked the bus.

That goes for every other football team on the planet though. Barcleona are miles ahead of everybody. It's impossible to get near them. Not too gutted this time, was expected we'd get beat and that's what happened!

But even if a club has all that money how do they go about getting a team that can compete with Barcelona and their style of play? Look at Real, packed with the best talent they could buy and even they couldn't do the job! The current Barcelona team is a freak of nature. 

Exactly. And Barca will be able to maintain their momentum, given the academy they have. Money is relevant of course, but all the money in the world will count for nowt if you have a crap academy.

Citeh may well go on to dominate the EPL in the coming years, but they'll never get close to this Barca team.

United have some rebuilding to do. They don't have a particularly great midfield.

This has been an area that myself and John (Llamedeos have discussed many times). I do feel the SAF will look to make a cple of major midfield signings this summer

There are two ways of beating Barca as I see it.

1- Park the bus a la Mourhino

2- Kick lumps out of Barca's midfield, while breaking up their play.

The nearest United have, regarding point two, is a fully fit Fletcher. But Fletcher needs help in that area with a similar type player.

It's no accident that we beat Milan in the San Siro - 'Arry actually got his tactics spot on that night. And what did he do? - he employed Palacios and Sandro as a pair of wolves to hunt down Seedorf (and others) so that Milan never really got into their stride.