Barcelona vs Manchester United Champions League Final Wednesday 27th May. Live on ITV1 at 7.45pm.Set up to be the classic Champions League Final, Manchester United will be aiming to make history as no other team has managed to defend their UEFA Champions League title. The match up with ‘galacticos’ Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is perfect for this stage. Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t seem to let up on his ambition to annihilate all clubs in all competitions; he flexed his squad muscles on the last game of the Premier League season with a 0-1 victory against Hull City with a team that some football fans could scarcely recognise. This depth has meant that they’ve achieved the retaining of the Barclays Premier League and by doing that in their penultimate match against Arsenal the first team managed to bag a rest in preparation for the big final tomorrow evening at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Rio Ferdinand is fighting for full fitness and certainly will have benefited from this rest. His had 3 weeks out with a calf injury...you’d imagine that he will start in this huge European match.
For Barcelona, Guardiola will be taking Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta who have recently picked up knocks in La Liga games. Dani Alves, Rafa Marquez, Eric Abidal and Gaby Milito are unavailable. All eyes will be on Messi when Barca have possession, the 22 year old has been sensational this season and his left boot can unlock the best defences in the world on his day. Emerging young talent Bojan will be hoping Barca do it, he has come through the Barcelona youth team system and would become the youngest player to have ever won the Champions League.
Historically, it is the Red Devils that have the edge – Manchester United have knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League on three occasions and then there was the 1991 Cup Winners final where Mark Hughes scored twice in their 2-1 history. This was Sir Alex’s first piece of European silverware in the 1st season that English clubs were reinstated into European silverware after the 6 year UEFA ban.
As so much rides on a game like this, it will inevitably be a tense and close affair. This makes it perfect for some small stake spread betting. Although I am definitely not a professional gambler, if you are a neutral spectator in a football match like this then online sports spread betting is a way of making this nail bitingly exciting. The thing with spread betting is that most people are apprehensive of it because they are scared of the losses getting out of control. However with online football betting in general it pays to do a bit of odds comparison and reading the exact details of each bet that is offered to you. For example, with Sporting Index you can set a ‘stop loss’ which potentially caps your loss or profit. I like doing something silly like the number of corners in a match, for example Corners 10-Ups where 10 points are awarded for corners once there have been ten in the game (90 mins only). Of course be careful on your unit stake and think about the stop loss if you’re going to get aggressive. Be lucky...but be careful football gamblers!!
After being crowned World footballer of the year and winning the Prem/Champs League duble last season, some people predicted that Ronaldo would move to Madrid...either that or produce some more casual form for Man Utd. To match Fergie's desire he was proved that he is a big time player with goals when the Red Devils most needed them. He displays that winning streak that makes him perfect for his club.
"I know I've won a lot but I'm the one who set the bar that high," Ronaldo said, when interviewed recently by uefa.com. "I'm a player with a lot of ambition and a strong character. I think that at a personal level, what's most important is me. No matter what others might think, I'll keep thinking like that. I'll continue doing the things I did in 2003, 2004, 2005, right up until now. So nothing will change in me – probably the opposite. My ambition will grow, to win at club level as well as at a personal level. Because the feeling from winning is good, I'm really a winner and therefore I'm going to want more."
My prediction for the match is 1-0 to Manchester United, I think that Barca won’t quite have the fire power to beat Edwin Van der Sar and that quality Man U defence which will lead to the Red Devils 3rd Champions League title.