Barcelona v Manchester United – a true footballing spectacle

As Manchester United travel to the scene of their greatest and unarguably their most dramatic European triumph, Sir Alex Ferguson will be keen to build another team that will emulate the greats of 1999.

May 26, 1999 was the day that Sir Alex’s team overcame overwhelming odds and scored two goals at the death to overcome the German giants from Munich.

The mind games have started and increasingly we hear noises coming out of the Nou Camp dismissing Manchester United as the favourites. While it is difficult to tag either team as ‘favourite’ in this encounter, given the recent run of form and respective league positions, one would have to say that Manchester United have an edge coming into this encounter.

The likes of Thierry Henry, Gianluca Zambrotta and Lionel Messi have come out and made bold statements about how the ‘pressure will be on Manchester United.’ While I agree that the Nou Camp is an intimidating place to visit and that United will have their work cut out against the likes of Messi and Co, the ‘positive’ statements emanating from the Barca camp seem more of a desperate show of bravado from a team that will possibly end the season without any silverware.

Internal dissent, a spate of injuries and indifferent domestic form has added to the anxiety at the Catalan club. The most surprising part of this is that there are hardly any words being uttered by Frank Rijkaard leading up to this encounter;

Rijkaard has also being linked to other clubs and a trophyless season might just tempt to him to Stamford Bridge.

The Catalan club have an impressive strike force in the likes of Henry, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Samuel Eto’o and Messi, who is likely to play. The emergence of  teenage sensation Bojan Krkic is an added goalscoring threat that Manchester United will have to contend with.

Rijkaard is likely to play a 4-3-3 formation that has become synonymous with Barcelona’s eye-pleasing, attacking football. Yaya Toure will probably be the defensive midfielder with Xavi and Iniesta on either side and the likes of Messi (or Krkic) and Henry flanking Eto’o upfront.

This will effectively pit Patrice Evra against Messi and the Frenchman will have to contend with Messi’s mesmerising dribbling and mazy runs. This will ensure that Evra does not rampage too far forward in the fear of granting Messi space, particularly on the break. Henry will renew his Premier League battle with Wes Brown and will be looking to score against his old foes in the English top flight..

United should include Anderson in the midfield as his energy, tenacity and bite in the tackle will help to control and curtail the attacking instincts of Barcelona’s strike force. Having said this, I doubt Sir Alex will leave Paul Scholes on the bench; a big European night demands that Scholes is out there making those skilful passes and opening up a defence which will not be marshalled by Carlos Puyol as he is out on a suspension.

My only apprehension is that sometimes Scholes gets outgunned by a younger and more energetic opponent, as was the case in the match against Arsenal when he was eventually replaced by Anderson.

Sir Alex may start in a 4-2-3-1 with Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves or Anderson as the two holding midfielders. However, it is never easy to second guess Ferguson and trust him to pull off a few surprises when the teams line up at the Nou Camp.

Formations and tactics apart, this will be a sporting spectacle that all football purists would love to watch; two teams that share similar attacking philosophies and who have a tremendous lineage of playing attractive football going for each other’s jugular.

As Sir Alex’s side looks to engineer another glorious night at the Nou Camp with their brand of attractive, attacking football, he will do well to remember that in Barcelona, there is a team of equally attack-minded players who will match them, stride for stride, breath for breath and tackle for tackle.