Champions League Final. Barcelona vs Manchester United. 28th May. 7:45 pm.

[Kaiser]

You all forget that Guardiola miscalculated and took off Villa for Keita after an hour and that meant they lacked another option/runner up front which helped us in terms of soaking up their pressure and counter-attacking.

Sure we played brilliantly in that match, but perhaps the outcome would've been different in a one-off game, as they wouldn't have the home leg to bank on and wouldn't have taken off their striker.

I thought Man Utd played well bar Evra messing up (the cunt deserved that) for nearly all the goals, they just lacked a little luck in the key moments and a Carrick-Giggs midfield was always gonna get battered. One of Fletcher/Anderson would've helped shore up the middle.

[Ernesto]

I'm gonna say it.

I think Pep Guardiola is the best club manager in the world.

There, I've said it.

[Kaiser]

He's one of the best around currently, definitely. But the best? I'm not so sure.

Yes, he's won more in his first three seasons as a coach than any coach has previously in that period of their career.

But he's done it at a club where he knows everything, and is revered by the fans and players. Yes, he's perfected the defensive aspect of their play by incorporating a ridiculously effective pressing game and a fantastic work ethic from all the players.

I dunno how much influence he has on transfers but to be fair to him, he bought Pique on the cheap, prevented the club directors from selling Busquets and Pedro, and I think he also signed Alves, who's key to their style. He managed to revitalise the side by getting rid of a lot of the old guard in Deco, Ronaldinho etc.

But then they've bought a lot of duds in Hleb, Henrique, Keirrison etc while the Ibrahimovic deal was awful value for money.

He's like the third generation of total football from Michels to Cruyff to Guardiola. I think that the real test for him as a coach would be to manage another club abroad away from the culture he knows so well.

[Power n Glory]

He should come to Arsenal and implement 'Tika Tika' / Total football 3.0. Show Wenger how it's done. Wenger is tying to create his own brand of Total Football but it's not working. Pep played for the man, that played for the man that started it with Ajax and the Dutch national team. Wenger loves the total football style but he can't get it right.

[AKBapologist]

SAF's the best manger in the world atm. His ability to motivate techincally inferor players, as well as manage big personalities is second to none, with jose coming close.

With Pep, I always wonder where Barca would be without Messi. The style of footy is great but Messi is some kind of savior/freak/deity who drags them out of so many potencial banana skins.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Well true, he is a massive part of their team but I don't think Messi would be the same player he is now if Rijkaard had stayed (that's not to say Messi was poor because he quite evidently wasn't).

[WMUG]

You all forget that Guardiola miscalculated and took off Villa for Keita after an hour and that meant they lacked another option/runner up front which helped us in terms of soaking up their pressure and counter-attacking.

Sure we played brilliantly in that match, but perhaps the outcome would've been different in a one-off game, as they wouldn't have the home leg to bank on and wouldn't have taken off their striker.

I thought Man Utd played well bar Evra messing up (the cunt deserved that) for nearly all the goals, they just lacked a little luck in the key moments and a Carrick-Giggs midfield was always gonna get battered. One of Fletcher/Anderson would've helped shore up the middle.

We pretty much did it in 2 games, the second with Villa on for the 90; until the ridiculous RVP sending off, it was something like 4-0 in terms of shots on goal IIRC (though I admit I may not)and we were 3-2 up. If we did it over 2 games 11v11, we could definitely have done it in one in a neutral-but-biased ground.

[Cripps_orig]

He'll flop anywhere else

[Özim]

Different circumstances though. I'm not sure we would have done any better in a single match to determine it all.

Yup if Barca play well they'd have taken us apart as well, their passing, movement and quality is too much for anyone at the moment.

Frankly I thought overall they were below par against us, even in the 2nd leg where they created chance after chance (which they kept missing).

We can't compete against this quality of team, we've had far far better teams that would have found it hard. At the end of the day we've seen how good our team really is this season, proofs in the pudding as they say.

[Marc Overmars]

Wembley has the final again in 2013.