SUMMARY:
Having gone down an away goal on aggregate last week, it was crucial that Manchester scored two goals away at the Camp Nou. The early signs were good for the opening 15 minutes or so with United looking threatening and creating a few early chances through the pace of Marcus Rashford. This pressure soon broke as Barcelona started to keep possession of the football, something they struggled to do a week ago in Manchester. Another change that the Catalans implemented was that they gave the United defenders very little time on the ball and close them down quickly to prevent them from playing a ball in behind for the pace of United’s front three.
Manchester United’s plan had remained largely the same from the first leg, looking to catch Barcelona vulnerable on the break.
This plan was thwarted by Barcelona players immediately swarming the United defenders as soon as they had possession of the ball, thus cutting of the outlet for the Red Devils.
The first goal came when the ball was stolen off of Ashley Young who was a victim of this Barcelona press. The ball found its way to Messi on the right wing who cut inside onto his left and nutmegged a defender before using another defender to bend the ball around and curl it into the bottom left corner of the net to De Gea’s right. Shortly after, Messi was there to terrorize Manchester again when he cut onto is right foot this time to curl a shot toward De Gea’s goal. The ball squeezed underneath the Spanish ‘keeper in a moment to forget for David De Gea. At this point, at 3-0 down on aggregate and having seen the extent of the talents of the greatest player the world has ever seen, Manchester United were left deflated allowing Barcelona to completely dominate the match. Manchester United made minimal chances throughout the rest of the game and were chasing the ball for much of the time. To add insult to injury, the former Liverpool man, Coutinho banged one home in classic Coutinho fashion. None other than Messi played the important ball of the move over the back line to an onrushing Jordi Alba who played it back to Coutinho to strike from 20 yards out. The game ended with Barcelona creating a few more opportunities and Manchester United seeing their late attempt at a consolation goal brilliantly denied by Ter Stegen.
GOALKEEPERS:
DE GEA: A tough night out for the Madrid native having conceded three goals on the night one of which coming from a mistake. The first goal was a very good finish from Leo Messi. Perhaps, De Gea could have set his feet quicker as he had only set his feet after the ball had left Messi’s foot which may have given him more time to reach it. It is very difficult, however, to predict when Messi will shoot the ball and even more difficult to anticipate which direction he will shoot as we often see him shoot to the other side of the goal from similar positions. This brings us back to my statement from last week of anticipation, had De Gea gone early perhaps he could have saved it as most of the time the forward will strike in that direction. If you go early you then risk the forward shooting in the other direction leaving you look foolish. The second goal was one to forget for David De Gea. Messi cut onto his right foot to curl one and De Gea collapsed to his left to collect, but it slipped underneath him into the goal. I won’t spend too much time on it as I believe that the pressure put on ‘keepers to be flawless is completely unreasonable hopefully this will change in the future. The criticism of a goalkeeper who makes one mistake only makes him more likely to make a mistake in the future, therefore becoming preoccupied with a mistake is completely unproductive for everyone. The third goal, created by Messi, came when Messi played a ball over the top for Jordi Alba who laid it to Coutinho to unleash his trademark curling strike from 20 yards out. Despite coming close, it would have been miraculous had De Gea saved it, though he is capable of miracles. He only had time to take a power dive and try to reach it with his top hand, but it was out of reach. De Gea made three saves in this match of note. The first came from a glanced header following an in-swung Messi free-kick which was down slightly to De Gea’s left. He did well to be in the correct position and get two palms down to cushion it and gather at the second attempt. The second save was a bit of a mystery to him. Alba lashed a ball across the 6 yard box to the opposite full-back, Sergi Roberto who attempted to tap it in. De Gea had used cross steps to get across his goal and the ball hit him preventing the goal. A lot of ‘keepers would have gave up on the play, but De Gea decided to cross step just in case and luck was in his favor this time. The final save came from Messi who lashed one toward De Gea from 8 yards out to De Gea’s right and he stood up and got two hands on it to beat it away as it was placed close to his left ear. A tough night for De Gea, but even the best ‘keepers in the world have an off day.
TER STEGEN: The German is everything that you would want out of a modern goalkeeper and appears to have it all. It has become such a regularity that we forget just how good Ter Stegen is with his feet and today had he not been wearing the green goalkeeper kit you would think he was a midfielder. The range of his passing is possibly the best in the world being able to play a ball to any player on the pitch with pinpoint accuracy. There were a number of times I thought he would have to kick long given pressure coming from both his left and right, but proceeded to take a touch a find Busquets in the middle to break the first line of pressure from United. Other times, a United midfielder would step up to mark a defender when the forwards were out of position and Ter Stegen would calmly chip dink a ball to the open man in the middle of midfield. He is what allowed Barcelona to keep the ball on many occasions in this game and was a factor to their dominance. His first save came early on when Rashford was played through, but forced to take an early shot on due to pressure from defenders. It was a fairly easy save to collapse dive to his right to pin down the bouncing ball, but I noticed that Ter Stegen is one of the best in the world at always having his feet set at the time of the shot. As we saw with De Gea today and Ederson last week, some goalkeepers have timed their set in a way that they are landing into their set while the ball is moving towards them. This rarely ever happens with Ter Stegen. His second save came from a long range Paul Pogba effort which bounced in front of him, but Ter Stegen smothered it with a front dive, again having his feet set before the shot. Ter Stegen’s biggest moment was in the 90th minute when a cross was whipped in from his left and a glancing header at the near post turned it towards Ter Stegen’s left and appeared to be creeping just inside the post. Ter Stegen had squared his body thinking that the ball would pass by the first onrushing United forward, but he was able to dive and get his head on it. Again, becuase Ter Stegen set his feet he was able to react and get down at his near post to claw it out of the goal despite being slightly out of position. So many other keepers would still be moving across goal and have no chance. It was a fantastic performance from a goalkeeper who I consider to be the best in the world at the moment.
Safe Hands Review 