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Thursday, May 18, 2006

 

Oh well

For 50 minutes we faced Barcelona with 10 men, we took the lead, we held on, we restricted Ronaldinho, we had chances to score, we lost.

The easy way out is to blame the ref. But he was fair and consistent, he made mistakes for both sides. Perhaps he could have been tougher on some of the Barca challenges but he also saw through some of their extravagent play acting. Perhaps he could have let the goal stand and just yellow card Lehmann instead of reaching for the red but he didn't. Just as important, perhaps Henry, Freddie or Hleb could have converted one of their chances but they didn't.

Down to 10 we hung on gamely. Toure was immense in the centre of the defence as he has been most of the season, Almunia done all right when he came on and I think he'll be a bit peeved at being beaten at the near post twice. But most of all we nullified much of the Catalan's threat. Ronaldinho was pretty ineffective, Deco showed touches, Eto'o scored but not much else besides. Against 10 men Barca attacked in waves but threatened only occassionaly.

Barca are a good team. We're a good team. The final was never going to be a classic after the sending off but that's the way it goes. There were pluses for us on the night and hopefully we can now truly compete on the European stage on a regular basis.


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