#Barcelona #Inter #UCL
Barcelona were the best team in the world. They had the greatest coach in the world in Pep Guardiola. They had the greatest player in the world in Lionel Messi.
Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets controlled games without breaking a sweat, Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol provided a steel in defence and Dani Alves, Pedro and Victor Valdes had their moments.
Pep Guardiola had cracked the football manager lark inside a single season, winning the Treble. He’d made enormous decisions too: throwing Ronaldinho and Deco out of the club, two of their big-name players and promoting rookies in Sergio Busquets and Pedro, whilst building a team around Lionel Messi.
Guardiola won his second European Cup two years later, against the same opponents as he had in Rome: Manchester United, a team who were their biggest rivals in Europe.
Either side of the 2011 triumph at Wembley, Barcelona were left sick to their stomach in two Champions League semi-final defeats that seemed barely plausible.
In 2010, Barcelona faced Inter Milan and despite a two-goal deficit from the first leg, they were expected to progress against a Jose Mourinho team parking the bus. This was the ultimate parking of the bus: an Inter team who had 10 men for 72 minutes, an Inter team who played 5-5-0 with Samuel Eto’o—formerly of Barcelona—on the wing. Inter won 3-2 on aggregate and won the final.
In 2012, Barcelona faced Chelsea and faced another deficit going into a second leg at the Camp Nou. Chelsea were no obdurate team: they were a shambles. They had sacked Andre Villas-Boas in March and had somehow found themselves in a semi-final under caretaker Roberto di Matteo.
Again, Barcelona couldn’t break down a team playing with 10-men for the majority of a match. A Lionel Messi penalty would have put them into a third final in four years. Instead, he missed and Fernando Torres scored in the last minute. Chelsea won the final against Bayern Munich.
Pep Guardiola would leave the club at the end of 2012 and Barcelona have won one Champions League in a decade.
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Voice: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Words: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Edit: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
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