The UEFA Champions League final to be contested by Manchester United and Barcelona at Wembley Stadium on May 28 2011, will be a sentimental affair for both teams. Both clubs won their first Champions League trophy in this venue.
The very first Champions League final to be held at Wembley was in 1968 which Manchester United won 4-1 in extra time against Benfica. That Bobby Charlton inspired win against Eusebio’s Benfica made Manchester United to be the first time English team to win the Champion’s League or European Cup as it was called then.
Barcelona, after living under the shadow of Real Madrid in Spain for many years, won the tournament in 1992 for the first time in their history at the same venue. Who can forget that wonderful free kick by Ronald Koeman against Sampdoria to give Johan Cruyff's dream team their first European Cup? Pep Guardiola, the current Barcelona coach, was the Xavi version of that dream team and Roberto Mancini the current Manchester City coach, was the captain of Sampdoria.
This was the last time the tournament was called European Cup before it’s re-branding to the current Champions League format.
Since then, both teams have won two more Champions League trophies to make it three apiece. Manchester United won their second cup against Bayern Munich in 1999 ironically in Barcelona and in 2008 in Moscow against my beloved Chelsea. Barcelona won their second cup against Arsenal in Paris in 2004 and in 2009 ironically against Manchester United in Rome.
So who will win this time around?
At the beginning of the season my favourite to win this year’s tournament was a team from London, the host city of the Wembley Stadium. It's so unthinkable that a city as cosmopolitan as London has never produced a European Cup winner.
Even though it's not the only European capital city never to produce a European Champion, this year promised so much for the supporters of the clubs from the city. Rome, Berlin, and Paris also belong to this category. Only Madrid, capital of Spain, from the big 5 European Leagues has a European Cup winner.
But for London I thought this drought was about to end. The Wembley is reopening for the first time to Europe and London had three teams in the tournament. This made the city to be the first city in Europe to have three teams competing in the tournament at the same time. Their dream ended in quarter final stage with the elimination of both Chelsea and Tottenham by Manchester United and Real Madrid.
So, without a London club in the final, I have an uneasy feeling that Manchester United might sneak it as they might be more pragmatic than Barcelona. But, in football terms, it's very difficult to bet against Barcelona. They are such a polished side and a joy to watch.
As for Messi, he has closed the debate on who is the best footballer in the world. No one has ever dominated the European Cup semi final between these two greatest rivalries the way he did since Zinedine Zidane in 2002.
Ironically, Zidane did it at the Bernabeu and Messi chose the opposite direction, the Camp Nou. He is just a World Cup win away from greatness. One World Cup win will put him alongside Pele, Maradona and Zidane. He would be ahead of real Ronaldo from Brazil.
by Lungile Binza
http://www.news24.com
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