Barcelona Crushes Man U 2-0

It was a beautiful Wednesday regardless of where you were, if you are a Barcelona fan like myself. Not only did you get to watch an incredible display of soccer from your favorite club, but you also got to see Manchester United crushed like a small bug.

In short, this game had everything you could have wanted to see if you are a Barca fan or a Man U hater. Brilliant midfield play from Xavi and Andres Iniesta combined with fantastic striking from Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto'o for Barcelona.

While at the same time, Man U's brilliant (ahem, pretty boy) striker Cristiano Ronaldo was utterly frustrated all day by Carlos Puyol, the Barcelona defenseman and captain.

A more in depth dissection of the match follows after the jump.

United came out purposeful for about the first eight minutes of the match. They controlled the ball and launched five shots on goal including a ricochet off goalkeeper Victor Valdes that could have easily resulted in a 1-0 United lead.

Unfortunately for United, they launched five shots in the first eight minutes and would only get 6 more shots for the next 82 as Barcelona's defense dug in and their midfield controlled the pace for much of the game.

From the 8-10 minute mark, there was a battle for control of the match and it could be sensed that whoever scored the first goal would probably strike a crushing blow against their opponent.

At the 10 minute mark, Barcelona midfielder Iniesta found Eto'o in a one on one opportunity against Nemanja Vidic. Eto'o made a beautiful move to the inside and put the ball into the net with a brilliant one touch shot from the outside of his foot.

Barcelona controlled the pace for essentially the rest of the game. Messi put in a second goal off an absurdly well placed cross from Xavi in the 70th minute to put the game away for good. Frustration began to set in for United as they recorded three yellows from the 78th to the 90th minute.

As brilliant as the goals from Eto'o and Messi were, the true story of this game was the play of Xavi and Iniesta in the midfield. They set the table beautifully all game long and provided some of the most incredible ball movement I have ever seen in a soccer match.

United was at an absolute loss to contain them. Their crosses were perfection, but perhaps even more impressive was the absolute control of the pace of the match they exerted at all times.

It should be mentioned that the effort displayed by United in the final 20 minutes of the match was nothing short of embarrassing. They began to stand round and never really mounted a true attack on goal.

In fact, the effort after the 10 minute mark from Man U really did leave something to be desired and while the match was special due to the beautiful soccer played by Barcelona it was somewhat cheapened by the poor effort displayed by their opponents.

It feels good to win another UEFA championship. The last Barcelona win came in 2006 against Arsenal who put on a far more impressive effort than United did on Wednesday.

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