Shaw own-goal leaves Ole needing another Nou Camp miracle as Barca take control
THE excuses will come thick and fast. They are in transition, or they are still picking up the pieces after the doomed Jose Mourinho. The reality is that Manchester United are allowing top class European oppo to boss them in their own backyard. To retrieve this, for Manchester United to score enough goals to knock […]
THE excuses will come thick and fast.
They are in transition, or they are still picking up the pieces after the doomed Jose Mourinho.
The reality is that Manchester United are allowing top class European oppo to boss them in their own backyard.
To retrieve this, for Manchester United to score enough goals to knock Barca out of the Champions League, just feels improbable.
It needs another heroic effort from United, a repeat of their extraordinary victory against PSG in the Parc des Princes.
It looks beyond them, a step too far in the land of European football’s most powerful, most successful teams.
They are losing game after game now: four out of the last five after Luke Shaw’s 12th minute own goal settled it.
STREETS AHEAD OF UNITED
PSG had 55 per cent of the ball when they won 3-1 at Old Trafford in the last round.
Barca raised them, spending 67 per cent of the time with the ball doing the usual rounds between their human dynamos.
Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Coutinho and, of course, Little Leo passed the ball for fun out there.
They were allowed to.
Ernesto Valverde’s side are saving themselves for bigger challenges to come in the Champions League.
They look streets ahead of United.
This is not the 2009 vintage, or the 2011 upgrade that humiliated United in the Wembley final.
Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez, masters of their own universe when they pulled on the Barca shirt, are long gone.
You would never have known.
Solskjaer’s mini-coaching conferences on the sidelines with Mike Phelan, Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna look good for the cameras when they are winning.
The wise old heads in this Barcelona side patiently waited for their moment to pounce
They saw off the Stretford End, the din that welcomed this United side on to the immaculate playing surface at five to eight.
Barca have seen it all before.
Messi wandered around in the opening minutes, working it all out in his customary Gary Kasparov-style before getting down to work.
If it had been a game of chess, Messi called “Check” with just 12 minutes on the clock.
LAMENTABLE LUKAKU
United’s defenders lost track of Messi, allowing to wander freely into the box to match with Sergio Busquets’ pass.
The No10 instantaneously lofted a ball up to Suarez at the far post to head down beyond David de Gea.
Uefa will tell you that it was a Luke Shaw own goal, touched over the line by the United left-back, but this was engineered by Barca’s brilliance.
It took a VAR review to confirm it all, a brief delay before Italian robot, sorry referee, Daniele Orsato pointed to the centre spot. 1-0 Barca.
Suarez celebrated a second time, giving the Stretford End a ping for all the abuse directed at him over the years.
They have history.
There is bad blood between them, with the memories of his racist comments directed at Patrice Evra haunting him on his return to OT.
He was digging out the Stretford End after the goal was given, turning to them to celebrate Barca’s early lead.
They never looked like losing it.
United’s matchwinners – Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba and the lamentable Romelu Lukaku – did not show.
They were so defensively-minded, determined to make sure this first leg did not run away from them.
That is not the United way.
They will be without Luke Shaw on Tuesday, booked for a first half shove on The Magician.
On the other flank they struggled to find their rhythm, with captain Ashley Young mishitting routine crosses.
They are better than this.
UNITED RARELY THREATENED
United were pre-occupied with Messi, worried about his every touch, every turn, every little twisting run.
He was nursing a cut eyelid after 28 minutes, with blood spewing out of the gash after Chris Smalling left some afters on him.
By his impeccable standards, this was a subdued performance from the GOAT.
His team-mates were always in control here, rarely stretched by a United side that are on the slippery slope already under Ole.
By United’s standards this losing run is a crisis.
They barely made an impact, with Pogba, Fred and Scott McTominay struggling to influence the game from the centre.
McTominay threw himself theatrically through the air in the first half when he tried to win a penalty under Gerard Pique’s challenge.
Then there was the Diogo Dalot chance, heading across the face of goal five minutes before the break when Rashford flipped it towards him.
It was a poor selection from Dalot.
Barca looked good for another, with Dave Saves coming to their rescue when Coutinho smashed an effort towards goal.
Solskjaer made his first positive change 65 minutes in, dragging Lukaku and sending on some pace in his place.
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Anthony Martial’s form has fallen away again, but at least the United sub wanted to have a go at it.
The desire was there, but United are short of match-winning qualities at this level.
To beat them next week, they will need a Nou lease of life.
