Barcelona 0 Manchester United 0

Filed in archive Champions League on April 24, 2008

Cristiano Ronaldo's season took a very rare turn for the worse last night in the Camp Nou when he blasted a second minute penalty wide of the Barcelona goal.

As it turned out, that penalty was one of only very few chances to score in the whole game. For those of us expecting a feast of football between two of the best sides in the world, maybe a repeat of the great 3-3 draw of ten tears ago, the game turned out to be something of a damp squib.

For United, Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney all worked hard defensively, but none of them produced anything like what they are capable of at the business end of the pitch. Like Gerrard and Torres for Liverpool the previous evening, the big stars didn't quite manage to produce in the big game.

Barcelona, for all their possession and pretty football rarely threatened to break through United's excellent back line. Although you could feel the tension and fear every time the exquisite Messi got hold of the ball, patrice Evra did a pretty fair job of preventing him from seriously hurting United. Rio Ferdinand, as so often this season, was faultless, and Wes Brown filled in for the ill Nemanja Vidic admirably.

Sir Alex Ferguson had promised that United would attack in this game and he said again before the kick off that he thought an away goal was crucial. They couldn't have had a better start and, of course, we shall never know what would have happened if the normally reliable Ronaldo had scored from the spot. After the penalty, United rarely attacked and only once on a counter attack did they look like scoring when Michael Carrick should have done better shooting wide after good work to get in the position.

A 0-0 draw at Barcelona can't be regarded as anything other than a decent result, but I can't help but feel that United could rue the penalty miss. Without an away goal, United will need to attack at Old Trafford and this Barcelona side, although struggling in La Liga, will be a formidable proposition on the counter attack.

It is all set up for a titanic encounter at Old Trafford next Tuesday. It won't be for the feint hearted, but it could be a classic. At this stage it is probably just about advantage to United, but the lack of an away goal could be decisive in the end.

Roll on next Tuesday. It will be fascinating.