Man Utd vs Barcelona Champions League Semi Final LiveBlog (2nd Leg)

By: Daryl | April 29th, 2008

Man Utd vs Barca Champions League semi final 2nd leg

Man Utd 1-0 Barcelona (agg 1-0)

Scholes 14′

Kick off: 7:45 GMT

Thanks to everyone who read and commented. We’ll be LiveBlogging Liverpool vs Chelsea same time tomorrow to see which English club joins Utd in Moscow.

Great goal from Scholes to win it, and great defensive performance by Man Utd to keep Barca at bay. Credit Barca for their attacking attitude, but they looked short of ideas or any sort of plan as they got near Utd’s goal. It’s not enough to just hope Messi or Deco can pull out some magic.

So it’s going to be an all English final. In Moscow.

Full time That’s it. Man Utd win 1-0 and make the Champions League final.

90+6 Valdes up for a Barca free kick, but Man U head it away.

90+4 Carrick sends it way down field. Barca bring it back.

90+3 We’re underway again. Gudjohnsen’s shot blocked by … you guessed it … Rio Ferdinand

90+2 Evra leaves on a stretcher, hope he’s OK. He gets a very well deserved round of applause from the Old Trafford crowd.

90+1 Evra is down after a clash of heads. So there’ll probably be more than three minutes of added time now. If there’s not then Barca will be very very angry. Silvestre coming on for Evra.

90′ Three minutes of added time…

89′ Puyol playing left winger, and looking good at it too. He gets crosses in but they’re headed away.

88′ Bojan looked like he had an opening but Wes Brown made a great recovery. Great night for Man Utd’s ginger players.

87′ Toure off, Gudjohnsen on, which probably should have happened sooner.

85′ Zambrotta gets a great slide tackle on Ronaldo as he the Portugueezer tries to beat him down the right flank. Great battle between those two tonight.

84′ Barca have about 500 players in Man U’s box but can’t work an opening.

82′ Hargreaves got himself confused with Cafu for a second and tries to dribble up the right wing. Abidal tackles him.

81′ Henry draws a save out of VDS, who hasn’t put a foot wrong over the two legs so far.

80′ Ronaldo dribbles between two defenders and shoots wide. Nothing spectacular from him tonight, but he still looks dangerous.

79′ Rijkaard is so depressed with the scoreline he’s grown some “unemployed man stubble” during the course of the game

78′ Henry gets a close range header from a Barca corner but directs it straight at VDS.

77′ Barca trying to work an opening, but Man Utd visibly have two banks of four between the ball and the goal.

76′ Man Utd subs: Scholes and Nani off, Fletcher and Giggs on.

75′ All of a sudden, Barca have 15 minutes to score or they’re going out. Messi dribbles across the top of the box but someone (probably Ferdinand) gets the block on him. Rijkaard appeas for a peno but it really isn’t.

72′ Cross comes in from Deco, Ferdinand heads clear (he’s been a rock again tonight.) Defensive clearance from United sees Nani attempt an overhead kick on his own byline and miss, and then Hargreaves put his foot through it. Sums up the two players styles pretty accurately.

71′ Eto’o off and Bojan on. Eto’o hasn’t done much. Bojan might.

70′ Booking for Toure after he goes in late on Park. Toure will miss the final if Barca make it now. That has to suck.

67′ Man Utd play some triangular head tennis midfield. Ronaldo gets a bit too fesity while tackling Zambrotta and gets himself a yellow. Cards are piling up now.

66′ Barca fans looking very nervous. Lots of nails being bitten. Man U fans probably nervous too. Short nails all around.

63′ Deco’s free kick takes a deflection off the wall, VDS goes the wrong way but it’s just wide.

62′ Messi goes past Carrick, but the Man U midfielder trips him and gets a yellow.

60′ Iniesta off and Thierry va-va-voom Henry on.

59′ Nani weaves in and out of Barca defenders, but his shot would be better suited to rugby or American football.

56′ Messi dribbles though Utd defenders but his shot is lame. At the other end Tevez plays a one-two with Ronaldo and brings a near post save out of Valdes. Argentina have an unfair amount of attacking talent if you ask me.

55′ Ronaldo confuses Puyol with a few stepovers but there’s no one there for his cross. Barca’s defenders still knock it straight up in high the air in a panic, but Valdes catches when it (eventually) comes down.

54′ Bojan and Henry warming up. Barca definitely need to change things up.

53′ Now a yellow for Deco for running his mouth.

51′ The red is done warning Zambrotta after a late tackle on Evra. Yellow card.

50′ Man Utd playing crosses from one byline to the other. Either overhot crosses or a very fancy way of passing the ball about.

46′ I don’t see any changes from Barcelona. Henry must be itching to get on though.

45′ Kick off.

Teams are out, ready for second half kickoff…

…

Halftime Good game so far. Let’s hope we see Henry for the second half. I get the feeling he’ll have a role to play here.

45′ One minute of added time.

43′ Xavi floats in a free kick, which Milito heads wide. Replay shows it was a great chance. Also shows Rio Ferdinand ducking instead of jumping. Maybe he saw that steward from Chelsea and tried to hide?

40′ Park puts in a great cross for Nani, who’s header flashes just wide. I can see why Fergie likes Park so much now.

39′ Looks like VDS is OK to play on.

37′ Looks like Van der Sar took a blow to the head. Yep, Wes Brown gave him a Drogna style knee to the face. Cue some frantic Fergie gum chewing. How many packets does he get through in a game?

36′ Deco hits one on the bounce that flashes just wide of VDS’s near post. Deco and Messi look like Barca’s most dangerous players right now.

33′ Iniesta weaves around in front of Man U defenders, finds Eto’o who squares to Deco who fires one just over.

28′ Barca have to defend as Park puts Scholes through on goal and then Tevez crosses deep. Ronaldo puts it back across goal and Puyol heads clear off the line. Unfortunately for Puyol, Milito was trying to do the same thing and headbutted his teammate.

24′ Van der Sar beats Zambrotta to a through ball, but gets caught by his own defender and spins around at least 720 degrees, like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. He holds onto the ball though.

23′ Carrick crosses, Ronaldo looked like he was going for a diving header but Brown beat him to it. Good defending from Brown I suppose, but completely at the wrong end.

21′ Tevez has given Puyol another nick. That’s all backwards. It should be defenders getting rough with attackers not the other way around. It’s like a gazelle taking a bite out of a lion. Sort of.

20′ Great work from Ronaldo to set up the incoming Park at the top of the box. Park sidefoots it just wide. I feel like he could do with a goal to get Man U fans loving him as much as Fergie does.

19′ Leo Messi gets a great left footed shot, but Van Der Sar pulls out a diving save. Messi looking dangerous already.

17′ 1-0 still leaves Utd vulnerable. A single goal from Barca is still enough to send them through so Utd need at least a two goal lead to be comfortable. That spells end to end football. Brace yourselves.

~~Puyol~~ Zambrotta (thanks matt) tackled Ronaldo, but then played the ball straight to Scholes. The little ginger midfielder didn’t need asking twice and hit a swerving beauty into the top right corner from outside the box.

13′ GOAL! Paul Scholes from distance, 1-0!

11′ Abidal mis-hits a cross that nearly sails in. Edwin VDS has to scramble but the ball lands just on top of the net. I don’t care what Abidal says, he didn’t mean that.

9′ Now Barca are passing it back and forth and back and forth and back and forth across the back line. Man U fans whistling.

6′ Game is nice and quick and the crowd sound lively. I wonder how many Barca fans have made made the trip?

3′ Evra looking lively with a quick dribble. He can relax tonight, there are no Chelsea groundstaff around.

2′ Tevez slides in late on Puyol. Not pretty. And by that I mean the tackle of course, not Carlitos.

- Man Utd in red, Barcelona in that turquoise-ish away colour.

0′ Kick off. Scholes immediatley fouls Messi just outside the box. Typical clumsy Scholes tackle.

Players who are one yellow card away from suspension (and therefore missing the final should they make it) Hargreaves, Nani, Evra, Milito, Messi, Toure. Careful lads.

- Barca going with the traditional trident, with Eto’o at the head of it.

- Looks like Utd are going 4-4-2 with C-Ron and Tevez up front, Park and Nani out wide.

- Champions League anthem being played. Always seems weird to me. The Champions League is great and all, but it’s not a country.

5 minutes until kick off - Players are coming out. Everyone ready?

20 minutes until kick off - Here are the teams:

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

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

No Rooney or Vidic for Utd. And Ferguson has picked the exact same team as last week, only with Nani in for Rooney. Let’s hope he sends them out in a more attacking line up today. Barca will be pleased to have Puyol back thre. Especially with Marques missing through (I think?) yellow card accumulation.

One hour until kick off - Anyone got any predictions? I’m going for a scoring draw (let’s say 2-2) with Barça winning on away goals.

Here’s a round up of previews from around The Offside:

Man Utd Offside preview: A Good Time for Some Home Cookin’

Barcelona Offside preview: In it to win it

Champions League Offside preview(s): There Will Be Goals, How to Stop Messi, Eto’o, Rooney and Ronaldo and (last but noy definitely not least) The Champions League Semi Final Drinking Game*

*NSFW (unless you work as a taster in a brewery, in which case you’d just be working extra hard)