Sorry for a long delay in between blogs. Today promises a huge deal, Manchester United against Barcelona. It’s Probably harder to pick a looser than a winner and by that I mean, both teams have several strengths but, the team with the most weaknesses is probably the team who will loose and it is unbelievably difficult to find the weaknesses. It’s easy to point out their strengths.
We’ll start with Barcelona, Messi is the first thing that springs to mind, pace agility and an unbelievable eye for goal, arguably the world’s best player and with Xavi and Iniesta behind him United are going to have to play their hearts out.
Messi has got to make runs at the Manchester United defence, we saw Torres do the same in his Liverpool days and had Vidic in all sorts of trouble. Never the less Vidic has certainly improved and after getting journalists player of the year it backs up the defender’s recent form. Xavi and Iniesta will certainly try to play their usual game and look to pass and challenge their Manchester United counter parts. Dani Alves has been amongst the bad press recently for his tendency to go to ground and it will make for a better game if everybody tries to stay on their feet today. Alves needs to be fit and not get lazy because Ji-Sung-Park will certainly be energetic and look to run forward and take advantage of any tiredness Alves may have, If Alves does not put a shift in getting back then Manchester United may have more than a 50-50 chance, especially with the ability Javier Hernandez getting on the line of the last defender and popping up in behind him when he leasts expects him. Defensively Pique has been sound and will be much more confident than when he was at United. David Villa may end up playing slightly out of Position today bu we’ll have to wait until kick off to find out for sure. Villa has a great goal scoring ability for Spain and has not yet been able to quite match that for Barcelona but he will still be a massive threat. He has skill and a very good finishing ability which maybe can’t be said for park. Park is certainly a work force and is good at moving the ball and setting up goals and he certainly can score big goals but i don’t think he can quite match up to Villa. Bojan, Pedro, Villa whoever plays Barcelona will have no problems going forward and producing chances but can Vidic, Ferdinand and Veteran Vandersar stop Barca actually scoring.
If we look at Manchester United then we’ll struggle to find players who can match Barcelona man for man, but that’s not what United will worry about. United have bags of talent but their in different areas. Two very good centre backs will give the reds confidence in defence and with Edwin Vandersar even more so. In midfield there will certainly be a demand for the ball all of united’s midfielders love moving the ball about and the wide men love to run forwards. United have the full squad minus Hargreaves to choose from so selection is not an issue. It’s already been revealed by Sir alex that united will look to attack and that they are very well prepared for tonight’s game. Up front Rooney and Hernandez are in great form and for Rooney he will look to brush aside his former team mate and get some early shots on goal to give him early confidence. Hernandez needs to play as he has been all year get on to the shoulder of the last man and use his phenomenal movement to get him a goal, he is not going to get goals by muscling off defenders although for his size he is quite tough. Nani will probably end up on the subs bench because Valencia’s recent form has been good and his crossing ability is superb, in a game that United may end up getting just 4 or 5 crosses in they will have to be put on a plate for united’s front men. It will be interesting to see who Sir Alex picks to play in the RB role. Rafael has been replaced by twin Fabio in the recent games, both of them love to get forward and like an early challenge or slide tackle to et them gong.
My Possible United team: Vandersar, Rafael, Vidic(C), Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Giggs, Scholes, Park, Hernandez, Rooney.
My Possible Barcelona team: Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Villa, Bojan.
My prediction is 2-2 and then 3-1 United in Penalties. I think United will take the lead early through Hernandez, Then just on Half Time go 2-0 up with a good finish from Park. Barcelona will naturally attack and then eventually score twice. Penalties well in the bast big players miss big penalties, Ronaldo in the Semi-Final agaist Barca, Ronaldo in the final against Chelsea, Terry against United so i think Messi and Villa will both miss their penalties and United will win.S
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