[Football] Champions League Final 2010/11 Report

Barca's front three all got on the scoresheet as the Spanish champions saw off their English counterparts to collect the trophy and seal their place in history

Barcelona are the champions of Europe after producing a scintillating performance to defeat Manchester United 3-1 at Wembley Stadium this evening.

In what proved to be a one-sided affair, Pedro gave the Catalan giants the advantage only for Wayne Rooney to cancel out his strike. In the second half, however, Lionel Messi and David Villa took centre stage, adding their names to the scoresheet in an imperious win.

The first half commenced at a frenetic pace, with Manchester United enjoying the best of the early exchanges. However, Barca eventually found their rhythm, and the match settled into a pattern of the Spanish side enjoying possession while United attempted to keep them at bay.

David Villa enjoyed a pair of efforts, one of which whizzed past the upright, and the other was gathered by Edwin van der Sar. With such dominance being exhibited by Barca, a breakthrough was inevitable, and Pedro duly delivered on 27 minutes.

Xavi was allowed to stroll through the centre of the pitch and reach the penalty area, where he flicked a pass into the path of the winger, who coolly slotted inside Van der Sar's near post for a thoroughly deserved advantage. 

But against the run of play, United hit back, albeit in controversial fashion. Interplay between Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney led to the ball reaching Ryan Giggs, who appeared to be in an offside position before feeding the England striker in space in the area. Rooney kept his head to curl the ball across Victor Valdes and into the corner.

At the end of what was a breathless 45 minutes, Barca looked to regain their advantage. Lionel Messi continued to drift deep and collect the ball, and came within inches of reaching Villa's near-post cutback, but was unable to make definitive connection.

The second half witnessed a continuous flow of traffic towards the United goal. Dani Alves stung the legs of Van der Sar from inside the box before Messi's follow-up was cleared from under the crossbar. But the diminutive frontman was not to be denied.

On 54 minutes, a static United rearguard allowed Messi and space to approach the area and rifle a shot that swerved past a cumbersome dive from Van der Sar and into the net, for his 12th goal in the Champions League this season, equalling Ruud van Nistelrooy's record total in the competition.

Barca maintained the momentum. Messi, Xavi and Iniesta all tested Van der Sar but the keeper stood up to their efforts, but the third seemed destined to arrive, and with 20 minutes remaining, United's fate was sealed.

Sergio Busquets rolled the ball to Villa on the edge of the area, and the Spaniard swerved his strike superbly into the top corner, before running to the fans behind the goal to celebrate.

From then on, Barca were content to see out the victory, to clinch the famous trophy for the fourth time in their history, and their second title in three seasons.

Barcelona

• 01 Valdesyellow card
• 02 Danielyellow card (Puyol 88)
• 03 Pique
• 22 Abidal
• 06 Xavi
• 08 Iniesta
• 14 Mascherano
• 16 Busquets
• 07 Villa (Keita 86)
• 10 Messi
• 17 Pedrito (Afellay 90+2)

Substitutes

• 38 Olazabal, 
• 05 Puyol, 
• 21 Adriano Correia, 
• 15 Keita, 
• 20 Afellay,
• 30 Thiago, 
• 09 Bojan

Man Utd

• 01 Van der Sar
• 03 Evra
• 05 Ferdinand
• 15 Vidic
• 20 Fabio Da Silva (Nani 69)
• 11 Giggs
• 13 Park Ji-Sung
• 16 Carrickyellow card (Scholes 76)
• 25 Valenciayellow card
• 10 Rooney
• 14 Hernandez

Substitutes

• 29 Kuszczak, 
• 12 Smalling,
• 08 Anderson, 
• 17 Nani, 
• 18 Scholes,
• 24 Fletcher, 
• 07 Owen

[Football] Champions League Final 2010/11

Back in Stadio Olimpico, Rome, 2009, United put on early pressure, but a 10-minute goal has put United on their back-foot, shifting the entire game in Barcelona's favour. United deployed a 4-3-3 system, with the solid Rio Vidic partnership in centre back. Anderson playing alongside Carrick in the absence of Fletcher looked energetic at first but Barca's dominant possession coupled with their superb pass completion rate have kept United at bay.

This time round, Barca would not have Henry nor Eto'o in their attacking front, whose roles will be replaced by Villa and Pedro respectively. Fletcher missed the 2009 final and that could've contributed to the midfield dominance by the Xavi-Basquets-Iniesta triplet, with Xavi and Basquets averaging the most passes made per game. Sir Alex could field the best defensive forward Park to keep up the tempo at United's midfield, deploying Carrick or Fletcher to sit on top of the centre backs, occupying the space which Messi is likely to appear. However, the level of match fitness of Fletcher comes into question and it is doubtful whether he will feature part of a demanding Champions League final.

Up front, whether Hernandez would partner Rooney would depend on the midfield featured. The potency of Hernandez this term has shifted Sir Alex's tactics so that Rooney has adopted a deeper role, thereby dropping into midfield to help out Carrick and Giggs, while Park and Valencia patrol the wide areas. 
Rooney's ability to defend as well as attack would make him a good candidate to negate Basquets, whilst allowing Hernandez to keep Barca's back four busy. Moreover, the Mexican could add supreme value in United's counter attacks. 


Another possible 4-2-3-1 tactic would mean a break-up of the superb partnership of Rooney and Hernandez. Rooney's tireless tracking back into midfield at times of Barca attack could release the likes of Nani and Valencia down the flanks once Barca losses possession. Nani and Valencia definitely possess the pace to run pass Alves and out-of-position Puyol. Abidal and Maxwell are returning from injury and this would cause a shift of Mascherano into an unfamiliar centre-back position and will see Valenca trying to exploit the space behind Puyol. 


There is going to be a time when Barca will dominate possession, and it will run down United player's energy when they try to win it back. So Sir Alex might ask his team to close down and press only in certain areas on the field. It is vital how United hold onto and use the ball once they've won it, as they would never want to give it away easily having consumed vast amount of energy. Hence United players have to be focused at all time, to chase the ball, and to avoid misplaced passes. To win the game, United needs to play fast, and proactive, as they're never a successful reactive side like Mourinho's Internationale last season. United have players who are capable of stopping Barca. Giggs could add value by acting to dictate and shift the tempo of United's play. 


Sir Alex has a full squad to choose from. He often comes up with something unexpected in big games.

Champions League Final 2009: 

Likely Starting Line-up Champions League Final 2011:
Barcelona: Valdes; Alves, Mascherano, Pique, Puyol; Xavi, Basquets, Iniesta; Pedro, Messi, Villa.
Manchester United: Van der Sar; Fabio, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Carrick, Park, Valencia, Giggs; Rooney, Hernandez.

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[Learn] Process

Process is typically described as a well-established way of achieving or accomplishing things. As could be observed anywhere, processes follow routines that give dynamic to our surroundings. Without understanding of the underlying process, results observed could not be made sense of sometimes. Gathering a good sense of the process allows information to be transformed into knowledge.

At the same time, it does not necessarily mean that by following the very same process, a same (unique) destination would be resulted. Deterministic processes are vehicles that generate a predictable outcome at destination. Blindly following a process without knowing where it might lead you could cause undesirable consequences. The expectation of a deterministic process should be well defined and known at the time of observation, whereas for some non-deterministic or stochastic processes, the possibilities of paths that will be undertaken by the process would be unpredictable.

Fixing a deterministic process, following it throughout, usually gives us the desired result that is targeted initially. Similarly, fixing a target steers us in the right direction in reality. And very often, simply assuming process to be followed to be fixed and not prone to shocks is foolish. Hence, allowing for some sort of random factors to affect the process that we follow would add flexibility, which in turns will likely to generate an even better outcome, given we respond to these random shocks in real time sensibly. 

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