Man Utd Finally Beat Barcelona

Posted by James on Jul 31, 2011 in Football, Sports | 0 comments

Man Utd have finally defeated Barcelona in a football match, although lets call it a soccer match as it took place in the US.

Yes, it has finally happened. After being comprehensively beaten by Barcelona in 2 of the last 3 years of the Champions League, Man Utd finally got one over on Barcelona beating them 2-1 at the FedEx stadium just outside Washington DC.

The last time they came together was at the Champions League Final when Barcelona comprehensively outplayed Man Utd. There were 6 members of that Barcelona team playing in this friendly game and 3 Man Utd players who played in both games.

There was no Messi or Xavi, two of the kingpins of the Barcelona success story. However, Barcelona have proved on their tour of the US that they have strength in depth. Wonderkid Thiago particularly impressing with his skills.

There were over 81,000 people at the game, witnessing two of the best sides in world ~~football~~ soccer go head to head once again in this final game of the tour.

Nani opened the scoring for Man Utd in the 22nd minute, beating the offside trap and charging onto a though-ball from Danny Welbeck.

He sprinted into the box and coolly slipped the ball between the keepers legs into the net. He followed that up with his trademark somersaulting celebration.

Man Utd were dominating and by contrast Barcelona hadn’t forced a save from the Man Utd keeper at all in the first half. The frustration was starting to show with a few rash challenges flying in.

Barcelona started to come alive a bit more in the second half although Man Utd were still creating chances. Nani once again had a chance, this time it was a difficult shot to make and he blasted it just over the bar from a tight angle.

Barcelona equalised in the 70th minute when he thumped a shot from the edge of the box into the top right hand corner of the goal like an arrow. Man Utd’s new keeper, David de Gea, didn’t have a chance.

The status-quo would only last 6 minutes though. The veteran striker, Michael Owen, was put through after a pass was intercepted on the half way line.

With Owen in a one on one situation with a keeper there is usually only one result and so it proved as Owen dinked the ball over the on rushing keeper.

One on one the Man Utd striker is great, at other times he can be frustrating and he managed to miss the last effort of the game with a volley from short range somehow missing it’s target.