from espn

Manchester United discovered what it is like to lose a European Cup final as brilliant Barcelona ruled Rome on Wednesday, securing a comfortable 2-0 win.

If there is any consolation in failure to become the first side to retain the trophy in the Champions League era, it is that they lost to a side as fluent and brilliant to watch as they are.

Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi scored the goals either side of half-time but to single those two out for special praise would be unfair on their team-mates, and particularly Xavi, who was simply awesome.

What were your thoughts on the match?

image daylife

A tourist visiting the Colosseum poses for a photo in front of a banner advertising the upcoming UEFA Champions League soccer final match in Rome

Manchester United, who clinched the Premier League title last weekend, face Barcelona in the Champions League final in Rome on May 27.

With the 45 year old Spaniard set to step down from the world stage, tonight’s UEFA Cup Final match up between Ukrainian side FC Shakhtar Donetsk and the Bundesliga’s Werder Bremen at the Sükrü ?araco?lu Stadium will mark the final International match Luis Medina Cantalejo will be in charge of.

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Thought I might share… its a nice close-up look!

The UEFA Cup trophy is pictured before the start of the UEFA Cup semi-final, second leg football match of Hamburger SV (Germany) against Werder Bremen (Germany) on May 7, 2009 in Hamburg, northern Germany.

From wiki:

…The winners keep the trophy for a year before returning it to UEFA. After its return, the club can keep a four-fifths scale replica of the original trophy. The regulations also state that the original trophy is awarded to any club that wins the UEFA Cup three times in a row or five times overall, though this has yet to occur as of 2008.

Weigh in.. Who ya got lifting this thing in a couple of weeks?

picture via Daylife

Chelsea’s Didier Drogba (L) argues with referee Tom Henning Ovrebo after their Champions League second leg semi-final soccer match against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in London May 6, 2009.

Didier was so incensed that he even dropped an F-Bomber on live TV… See it after the jump (more…)

Even though the decision to send Darren Fletcher off in yesterday’s Champions League semi-final seemed incredibly harsh, UEFA is saying that there is no chance of the red card being overturned.

[Soccernet]

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Bremen has made themselves extremely dangerous by scoring those valuable goals on the road throughout this tournament.

City deserved more from this match.  One of the better matches played recently.