FOR ONCE, a final without any “ifs” or “buts”. This time, the best team won and they did so by the length of the straight. Barcelona’s emphatic 2-0 win over Manchester United in last night’s Champions League final in Rome might not have been the stratospheric dream final for which many had hoped, but it was nonetheless a great night for the purists, with this outrageously gifted Barcelona team proving that, sometimes in football, class, technique and sheer skill can have their day.
On a balmy Rome evening, Barcelona did what they do best, playing their hypnotic, first touch, close passing game. Those of us who feared that the physically lightweight, defensively vulnerable Barca would crumble under the pressure of the more balanced United were proved gloriously wrong.
While United clearly started the better, Barca produced the first piece of incisive attacking after 11 minutes when the gifted Andres Iniesta ran past three United defenders before knocking a ball to striker Samuel Eto’o on the right. The Barcelona man nipped inside United’s Nemanja Vidic before beating Edwin Van Der Sar with a goal that came against the run of play.
That hypnotic Barca passing game began to click into gear and United were left chasing shadows. An even more telling quarter-hour period just after half-time should have seen Barca wrap up the business but both Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi missed terrific chances, while Barca hit the post through a Xavi Hernandez free kick.
In the end, it was one of the game’s most keenly anticipated stars, Messi, who struck the killer blow when getting on the end of a Xavi cross to head home a 72nd-minute winner. It says much about the Barca game that the smallest player on the pitch should end up scoring the decisive goal with his head. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and other Barca players had given an emphatic demonstration that sometimes craft and guile, rather than physical power, will win the day. A great night for the purists, and a good night for Catalonia too.