Tommy Platinum

First and foremost: Congratulations to Barcelona.

I doubted them after the Chelsea tie, because to be fair they didn't deserve to go through, but tonight they proved that they are the best team in the world and fully deserve to be European Champions. Well done to Pep, winning the TREBLE in his first season in management and well done to all their players.

Now, onto the game.

Obviously it was a disappointing performance from us but it was more that Barcelona were brilliant. I've never seen a midfield with more technical ability. Iniesta was man of the match and that's one of the best displays I've seen in a European final. Xavi was amazing too. They basically played us off the park for most of the game. We started well and could have taken the lead early on, which would have changed the whole game, but from the moment Eto'o scored (still one of the best strikers in the world) we were second best. It was a bad goal to concede and we had made a better start than them, but I think we handled it badly. We seemed to panic once we went behind and obviously Barcelona's confidence increased and they started playing their passing game and basically we just couldn't get the ball off them. When we did, we panicked and looked for the long ball or just hacked it clear, meaning they dominated possession. How often is the first goal in finals crucial? Once we went behind against a team with the ball retention skills of Barcelona it was always going to be an uphill struggle, but I still backed us to get an equaliser. Obviously we had a bad first half and I was glad to hear the half time whistle because we looked more likely to concede a second than get back on level terms.

In the second half, we started well and I was confident, but then there was a period in the match when we were really riding our luck and Barcelona had several chances to get the (probably) killer second. Henry's miss was one, and when Xavi hit the post with his freekick I thought that it might be our day after all, but alas, it wasn't to be. When Messi scored his great header I thought it was pretty much over, but we nearly got 1 back immediately which could have produced a late rally.

In the end though, we deserved to lose. I'm disappointed but I'm glad we lost to a great team. If we were going to go out, I'd rather it be to Barcelona than anybody else. No complaints about the result but I thought some of our players were a bit disappointing, particularly Carrick, Rooney and Vidic. Maybe the occasion got to them. Disappointed to lose but happy to get to two finals.

Barcelona are a hell of a team and deserve their success.

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