Well done Man Utd.... It's looking closer to a Chelea V's Manchester Utd final maybe?

Well I seriously didn't think it'll be 0-0 at FT. But now that it has happened, ManU will be the happier team out there now... They'll feel confident and they are favourites to go through now...

But Barcelona are a dangerous team and I think it'll be a more open game at Old Trafford... So I can still see a good chance for Barca too... It should be one hell of a game at OT...

Barcelona were the better for sure & deserved to win. Deco,Xavi,Inietsa & Messi were fantastic. The passing & movment from them was lovely to watch.

Easy to some up this game (and yesterdays as far as that goes).....

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..............

messi ran the show
ronaldo and Rooney were crap
Man United couldnt keep the ball
barca had 65% possession but couldnt score

It's still impossible to call really but I think Barca have the edge. Ok a cleansheet away from home is always good but scoring away from home is even better. If Barcelona nick 1 at Old Trafford United then need to score twice.

One word to to describe my feelings after that performance, embarrassed. I don't even want to comment upon it because I'm angry right now.

The commentators can spew out that crap about United getting the job done, a good performance and whatever but really it was shambolic, I can't believe the team have come out of that with a clean sheet? The passing was of Sunday league standard if even, I lost count of how many misplaced, rubbish passes committed by our players... It was just embarrassing.

Michael Carrick was a complete waste of space with the ball at his feet, one of the worst performances I've seen from him in a United shirt. Wes Brown was f***ing horrible at times and really should have been punished more than once, everytime he got the ball he looked a deer in car headlights.... Ronaldo, now I know those teeth aren't really his but he literally was toothless. If I was able to I probably would have punched him square in the face countless times because if he threw his arms up and whinged one more time instead of working to regain possession..... Ugh....

I expected the game to be a sparring session and I had already said beforehand that I expected Barca to have the upperhand but a sparring session is hardly apt, Manchester United were a punching bag and Barca the boxer....

All the credit in the world goes to Patrice Evra for me, what an absolutely fantastic performance he put in there, one of the best individual performances I've witnessed all year. Just a brick wall which no Barca players could get around and really the only player who wasn't satisfied with just sitting back, he wanted to push Barca back. Brilliant.

Special mention to Scholesy aswell, I wasn't confident about him playing this match as I thought his legs wouldn't be up to it but he proved me wrong. He like the rest of the team had nothing going forward but he was solid in the centre and cut Barca out many times.

A decent result, a shoddy performance but I think we have what it takes to go through.

The game was over-hyped really, for what it produced. I suppose the likelihood was that it'd be cagey, especially considering Fergie's record in semi-finals compounded with his desperation to make it to another final.

Barcelona's passing was fairly accurate but was played at a pace unable to penetrate United's defence for the most part. I'd love to see the possession stats 'cause they definitely had a huge chunk of it - but they were pathetic in creating anything of note in my opinion. With all their quality players the only one who really followed the attack up with a little conviction was Henry when he made van der Sar block his strike from just outside the area. The other 17-odd attempts were tame.

United just sat back, defending very well and hitting on the (very) occasional break. They did look the more dangerous but didn't attack enough... if they had i believe they'd have comfortably scored an away goal (albeit perhaps conceded in the process).

It was an engaging game but as far a 'good football' goes, hopefully the second leg is better.

Man United probably have the upper hand knowing it's at home, but Barca cannot be eliminated via a draw. United know they have to win and will come out to do so, although i still expect a typically cautious European night. There should be more room for Barca and i wouldn't bet against them scoring, but it's still very tight - if not tighter than before the first leg began. Should be good.

Now that was "sh1t on a stick"!!!

Terrible match, mainly because of Fergie adopting very defensive tactics and quite rightly I can understand Forev's embarrassment.

Regardless of what the Sky muppets say, I think the tie is truly 50:50. Yes United are at home, but that means the onus is on them to attack and hence that will leave spaces for Barca to exploit. Puyol will be back, although Vidic will be too...but Messi will be ready to play 90 minutes in Old Trafford. It's too close to call.

In summary: it was boring, mainly because of United happy to concede midfield territory, but the second leg should be more open. I fancy Barca to score at least one goal, but can United score 2 or more?

Haha, and to think Liverpool have been criticised in the past by Man U fans for their defensive tactics in Europe.

Quite ironic that the Livcerpool v Chelsea game was billed as the dull tactical affair, and this as high scoring salvo.

Oh how wrong that proved to be.

United played with Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney and were more defensive than Liverpool. Not a good game and Barça can qualify. The players of the game for me: Toure and Evra.

Fergie is usually very cautious in Europe to be honest. It was the same in Rome but without Totti they struggled to punish United, them somehow coming away with a 2-0 lead. I'm sure i could think of plenty more examples if i tried.

To be honest, a hell of a lot of United's game is counter-attack based, which is taken into overdrive mode come Europe. At least they have the defence to do that now, mind.

Because Barça this season is pathetic, if were playing like 2 years ago the game had finished 3-0, but nowadays Barça have a lot of problems to score goals, still that are scoring more goals away. At Camp Nou last 3 games have finished 0-0.

Both teams were horrid. Man Utd parked the team coach in front of the goal and were terrible on the counter attack. Barcelona had 65% of possesion and didn't create a chance all night. Awful game. Advantage nobody right now.

you still doubting me Forev?
Anyway let's move on shall we.

Only the Lords show themselves in these times and those are as follows.........!
Ferdinand,Evra,Messi, Yaya, Abidal.
Seems a bit of a contradiction having both evra and messi as having good games,but i thought that Evra did an impeccable job on Messi ,but Messi gave them fits as long as he was on the pitch and plus not being 100%.

I could never understand the accolades the likes of Iniesta,deco and Xavi got and todays game only made me more of a critic.The passing of both teams was atrocious for this level ,so many unforced turnovers that it wasn't even funny.The feeling i get when United play the Top Euro clubs is that they seem in awe of them especially the ones with good Champions League record.It seems the believe less in their ability outside of the UK and it was evident today.They looked shook from the kick off.I don't really buy a lot of those possession stats they put up throughout the game ,but Man U never got more than 40% the entire game.

I don't know if it will get easier for United at home if Barca get Thuram and Puyol back.Messi may be a little more fit and Henry may get involved earlier,based on that United are in for a rough time.

woah dude! i didn't even read this before my last post ,it's almost identical.I do have to disagree with you about Scholes. Let's make one thinig clear ,i have always been a big fan of Scholes ,he has been a quality player his entire career,but i think the time for sentiment has to end. Someone tell sir alex.They need to Anderson or Tevez in Scholes' place and you may see a different game altogether.I'm a firm believer in building a team from the mid field out , so Tevez in that position would be very good as he can run forever.He can go forward obviously ,but also made some key interceptions against Barca , so that's basically giving United a defensive edge.As we all know by now scholes' tackling has been suspect to say the least.

I must say Ronaldo would have had about 3 penalties if that game were in the Premiership.His constant whining was even painful for me to watch,he made no fans today.I can guarantee the UK hype machine will find someway of defending his performance. I think a lot of people here are downplaying the fact that United's confidence for the next leg will be suspect , which will make the game an even more nervous affair for United. Barca having that much possession nad basically rendering Man U harmless will not be forgotten any time soon.Take into consideration that they have a tough game against Chelsea as well......!

My hat off to Sir Alex, very professionnal.

I don't think the priority of Sir Alex was this match, i think the priority of Sir Alex is the match against Chelsea Saturday for the title. You may say that Manchester was defensive and had only 30 % ball possession but Manchester controlled the match from the beginning to the end. When was Barcelona dangerous ? Never, and Manchester could have scored. Now it's only an away match, Manchester is not tired and is ready to fight against Chelsea Saturday.

And for the CL the decision match will be the 2nd leg at home. There is nothing to say.

Agree with Forev about Carrick, looked completely out of his depth tonight. Where was Anderson, thought SAF should have realised his mistake and made a halftime substitution there.

United are very lucky not to have conceded that game, although Barca were their own worst enemies by not having enough quality in the final third to really create great chances. The final ball just was never there, Messi did some great approach play but it all came to nothing every time.

Ronaldo was poor but there was a clear plan to foul him every time he got on the ball to frustrate him and it worked.



haha nice try

Hello Mr.O

Nice to see you again.

Hello Yeekiat, thanks for waking me up. Watching these two games these past couple of days have put me to sleep. Its a shame attacking soccer seems to be a thing of the past, pack it in and counter and hopefully get a goal. It makes you wonder where the term 'beautiful game' came from, surely not from what I have witnessed the last couple of days. Lets hope the second legs are far better then the first, because I find it difficult to imagine it could be anymore boring. There is far too much talent on all four teams involved to play games that are so listless.................