Barcelona vs Man Utd Champions League Semi Final LiveBlog (1st Leg)

By: Daryl | April 23rd, 2008

Ronaldo vs Messi

Barcelona 0-0 Man Utd

Today’s Champions League semifinal at Camp Nou pits Barcelona against Man Utd, and Leo Messi against Cristiano Ronaldo. Arguably the two most exciting teams and the two most exciting footballers around.

There’s a lot of debate about who’s the better player. I say it doesn’t matter, because they’re both brilliant. And it’s not just C-Ron and L-Mes in action today. The likes of Deco, Theirry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Bojan Krkic are all worth watching, as are Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Nani and Anderson.

Read on for the LiveBlog…

An incredible first half of action, and though the second half was exciting to begin with, it sort of fizzled out towards the end. Ronaldo missed a pen, but Man Utd clearly came for the 0-0 draw and got it. Barca should have done more with there overwhelming possession. Now we just have to wait for the second leg.

Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. We’ll be do this again next week with LiveBlogs of two finely balanced deciding legs.

90+2 Full time. And that’s that.

90+1 Man Utd keeping possession now, they look happy to run the clock down.

There’ll be at least two minutes of added time. Anyone for a diving header own goal?

88′ Valdes catches a Man Utd cross. I’d forgotten Barcelona even had a keeper.

88′ Thierry Henry gets a bending shot away from the free kick, van der Sar catches.

87′ Iniesta dives between Park and Carrick and briefly takes flight like Superman. He gets the free kick though.

85′ Iniesta shoots from distance, van der Sar saves, etc.

84′ Giggs on for Tevez.

83′ Bojan looks like he’s about to take on Evra but eventually runs out of space and loses the ball.

82′ Thierry Henry gets a stinging shot at Edwin VDS, but the Man Utd keeper saves. That’s maybe Barca’s best shot on goal so far though.

81′ Not to second guess Sir Alex Ferguson, but even though a 0-0 draw at Camp Nou is a decent result, isn’t he going to regret the lack of away goals come next week?

78′ Man Utd have a sort of an attack but there’s only Park, Rooney and one other player up there. It’s like they’re not willing to commit anyone forward.

76′ Deco out, Thierry Henry in. Barcelona’s bench is ridiculous.

75′ Possession stats are 65% Barca, 35% Man Utd. Sounds about right. Nani has come on for Wayne Rooney.

71′ Deco uses the universal imaginary card gesture to suggest Michael Carrick should be booked. Not cool, Deco.

69′ Abidal with what looks like a perfectly clean slide tackle on Ronaldo in the box. Ronaldo appeals for a pen, ref ignores him. Ronaldo really wants another go from the penalty spot.

68′ Man Utd have the ball! And they’re passing it around. Barca fans whistling. I’d love to see the possession stats for this game.

66′ I see Thierry Henry warming up. Still no sign of a Man Utd sub though. Nani, Anderson and Giggs must be itching to go.

64′ Xavi with a lame shot from distance. For all Barca’s possession, they’ve had to take an awful lot of hopeful long rangers. Man Utd playing a dangerous game though, if they’re planning to hold out for 0-0 or just hoping for a counter attack.

61′ Leo Messi coming off for Bojan Krkic. Good effort from Messi, especially considering this is his second game back after injury. Can’t wait to see Krkic - the second youngest goalscorer Champions League history I believe - in action here.

59′ Xavi forces a save out of Van Der Sar, who’s done well so far tonight.

59′ Ronaldo tries to go around Zambrotta, but the Italian gets a tackle in. Can’t help thinking Ronaldo is trying too hard to beat people and giving up too much possession.

58′ Rooney all the way back in defence again. Is he playing right back?

- Not to get caught up in an old and (I think) redundant argument… but people who say “there aren’t enough goals in soccer” clearly haven’t seen games like this.

55′ Messi nearly gets through after a one-two with Eto’o. Evra covers though.

52′ Michael Carrick beats a Barca defender on the edge of the box and advances on goal, but he too bangs the ball into the side netting.

51′ Iniesta puts Eto’o through with a great little flick, Eto’o hammers it into the side netting. If this was boxing, Barca would be way ahead on points. But it isn’t, so it’s still 0-0.

50′ Brown robbed by Eto’o in his own box. Eto’o waited and waited and waited to square it to Messi, but when the pass came there was a Man Utd defender there to intercept. Heart in your mouth moment for Man Utd fans though. I can’t believe Fergie is happy with this.

48′ Zambrotta hits one with his left foot from a different post/zip code. Edwin VDS gets the tips of his fingers to it.

47′ Messi shoots from the edge of the box, and hits Wes Brown in the chest/arm (not sure.) No penalty though.

46′ No changes by the looks of things.

45′ We have kickoff.

- Alright then, players are back out for the second half.

…

44:55 Halftime. Either ESPN’s time display is five seconds behind, or the ref blew five seconds early. Man Utd players off for the hairdryer treatment, Barca players probably to get some advice about turning possession into goals. Wonderful first half of football though. The second half can’t come soon enough.

44′ Ronaldo just beat Rafa Marquez, but Marquez brought him down with a trip. Booking for Marquez, free kick for Man Utd. RM will mis the second leg. Ronaldo had to take a fair bit of punishment from Barca defenders today.

42′ Ronaldo with a horrible cross from a free kick. Man Utd just aren’t clicking, expect changes at half time. I see matt has proposed moving Hargreaves to midfield and bringing on Pique for Park, which makes a lot more sense than the current set up. Wonder if Fergie’s reading?

39′ Wayne Rooney just received a pass. I’d forgotten he was playing.

37′ Another Barca free kick in a dangerous position. Iniesta goes down form a pretty soft tackle from Scholes. Deco shoots, VDS catches.

35′ That’s a pretty nasty, pretty late tackle on Hargreaves from Iniesta. Could have ended very badly.

34′ Replay just caught Carlitos giving Zambrotta a gentle tap in the face with his elbow. Eto’o pulled the trigger, but Man Utd defenders were there to block.

33′ Nothing comes of the free kick, but Man Utd seem to be giving away far too many fouls in dangerous position.

32′ Messi just flicked it over Evra’s head and left him for dead, then squared it. Whoever he passed to was brought down. Barca free kick.

31′ Rooney crosses to the far post, Park meets it but it’s a weak weak header. Valdez waits, has a smoke and reads the paper before collecting it.

- Looks like it was a 50/0 ball and Marquez was just a bit stronger than C-Ron. I’ll bet Ronaldo would love another chance from the penalty spot though.

29′ Looks like Ronaldo was brought down in the box after a terrible pass across his own box from Iniesta. Will have to see the replay, but Ronaldo went down.

26′ Ronaldo looked like he was away for a moment after taking it past a Barca defender (couldn’t see who) but the move broke down when he tried some sort of weird trick pass.

24′ Iniesta gets a shot away without much backlift, but it’s wide. Great buildup from Barca though with keepy ups and backheels.

23′ Ball bounces off a Barca player in the Man Utd box, but Samuel Eto’o appeals and Barca somehow get a corner out of it. Some sort of Jedi mind trick?

22′ Replay shows C-Ron getting in Valdes way as the Barca keeper was trying to distribute the ball. I hate seeing players do that, it seems so petty.

21′ Xavi floats a cross/shot at goal, Edwin VDS catches.

20′ Lots of Barca possession again. Deco just played a nice ball to Messi with his knee. With all the focus on Messi and Ronaldo, it’s easy to forget just how talented someone like Deco is.

16′ Free kick takes a deflection and goes over. Not Ronaldo’s night so far.

15′ Tevez brought down now. It’s some ways out, but Ronaldo’s doing his Johnny Wilkinson stance.

14′ Of the thousand Barca players lining up to take the free kick, it’s Rafa Marquz who strikes it straight at the wall.

13′ Tevez brings down Yaya Toure right on the edge of the box with what loooks very much like a striker’s tackle.

11′ Messi plays Iniesta in behind Hargreaves, but Iniesta’s cut back is just behind Deco. Good spell for Barca.

9′ Ronaldo and Rooney have both been caught trying to dribble from deep on the wings now. Not sure if it’s a deliberate Man Utd tactic yto have them playing so deep. Might just be that Barca’s attacks are pushing them back.

8′ Messi managed to cut a ball back in the area, but it’s cleared for a corner.

6′ Ronaldo not too disheartened, he’s just done his (sort of) compatriot Deco with a nice stepover.

- Sorry, still getting over that. After Ronaldo retook that penalty so calmly against Arsenal recently, I just didn’t see him missing.

- Ronaldo just clipped the outside of the post. He can’t believe it. Amazing start to this game.

3′ Ronaldo steps up… and misses!!! Unbelievable!

2′ Penalty! A Man Utd cirber comes in and Milito handles it.

1′ For anyone who can’t see the game, thought you might like to know that Barça are wearing their traditional Blaugranes kit, Man Utd are all in white, head to toe.

0′ We’re underway, Barça kick off.

Waiting for kick off… - Paul Scholes 100th Champions League appearance. Good on him.

A few minutes until kick off - Wow, that Camp Nou crowd looks impressive. They’ve got signs that when all held up at the same time read “together, we are strong” in Barça colours.

15 minutes until kick off - The bad news for Man Utd is of course Nemanja Vidic. The Serbian centre back was already nursing a knee injury, but then went to hospital last night with a stomach problem. In Vidic’s absence, Wes Brown will partner Rio Ferdinand in central defence and looks like Owen Hargreaves will be playing right back. Could be worse, but it’s not the tried and trusted defence that Man Utd’s success has been built on this season.

30 minutes until kick off - Who’s excited? I am, that’s who. Here are the lineups:

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Evra, Hargreaves, Ferdinand, Brown, Ronaldo, Rooney, Park, Carrick, Scholes, Tevez.
Subs: Kuszscak, Anderson, Giggs, Nani, Pique, O’Shea, Silvestre.

Barcelona: Valdes, Milito, Marquez, Xavi, Iniesta, Eto’o, Zambrotta, Messi, Deco, Abidal, Toure.
Subs: Jose Pinto, Gudjohnsen, Henry, Sylvinho, Giovani, Thuram, Bojan.

You could put an incredible team together just using the talent on those benches.

1 hour until kick-off - Here’s a roundup of previews from around The Offside:

Laurie’s preview from earlier today
Tug of war between our Barça and Utd bloggers, with each predicting wins for their team
Preview on Champions League Offside
Yaya Toure is thinking about getting some Red Devil ass on Barça Offside
And it’s Moscow or bust on Man Utd Offside