Barcelona’s star studded line up swept to a resounding victory in Berlin, their fourth victory of the current Champions League format and their fifth time lifting “the big cup” overall, making them the most successful team of the modern era, moving ahead of Real Madrid and AC Milan with three apiece, and ending a season which not only saw the post-Guardiola hangover end with a treble but also saw their previous coach’s current charges Bayern Munich blown away en-route to the final.
It was a result that most people would have predicted, Barca have returned to their place this season as the undoubted best team in Europe, have got better and better as the season progressed and their ridiculously talented front three have improved as a unit following Suarez’s long absence at the start of the season. Messi is back to his imperious best and supported by (in my opinion) the world’s 3rd best player in Suarez, plus an ever improving Neymar. They have a truly outrageous attack, supported the signing of first goal scorer and Barca’s unsung hero of the season Ivan Rakitic who has minimised the effect of Xavi’s career winding down.
Massive credit must go to Juventus for their spirited display in the game where they made it a contest for large parts of the game and were the better team in the second half until Barcelona scored the second.
Personally I wanted Juventus to win the Final, you can easily imagine this Barca team winning the tournament next year and the year after that, but last night was the last chance for some true modern stars to walk away with the big one, Buffon was always going to be a major part of the story, and I’m positive he will feel he could have done better with Suarez’s goal. He now retires never having won the biggest prize in the club game. He’s won the World Cup though so lets not feel too sorry for him.
Another legend whose last chance came in this year’s final was Andrea Pirlo who now moves to New York City FC in MLS, where you can envisage him comfortably playing until the age of 60, strolling around dictating play and being easily the best player in the league while sipping on a large glass of the finest red wine.
Suarez went from villain to hero over the course of the season and whatever your thoughts on him as a person (he’s really not a very nice one), the fact of the matter is he is a superb player and is a worthy winner of the Champions League. His strike partner Neymar (whose ninja style headband worn during the celebrations should see him handed a retrospective ban) could have had a double but his “goal” was controversially ruled out after he headed against his hand wrongfooting Buffon.
Correct decision for me, the commentator at time said “the fact its gone in the goal is irrelevant” which is a nonsense, if a player scores with his hand it should not count, deliberate or not, similarly if a goal is prevented by a hand, it should be a penalty every time, if it was clearly deliberate, then also a red card.
However in the end it mattered not as Barcelona deservedly cemented their place as the greatest club side of modern times, their firepower and slick passing simply too much for their opponents, a synopsis I think we will see often over the next few seasons.
Yeah, drove me mad when when the German commentator said it should’ve stood, Neymar’s handball goal, because it wasn’t deliberate.
What a load of bollocks. It diverted the ball, so it’s a foul. Arm off the body, always a foul.