Força Barça!

Hugh sets out his prediction for tonight's Champions League final:

I would like to see Barcelona win tonight's match, mainly because I think Ronaldinho is the most exciting player I've seen play live on telly.

However, I'm not allowing this to influence my prediction:

3-1 to Barcelona
Scorers for Barcelona: Eto'o (2), Deco.
Scorer for Arsenal: Ljungberg.

Like Hugh, I want Barcelona to win, albeit for a slightly different reason and I'm not going to let this influence my prediction either which is for Arsenal to nick it 1-0, goal probably by Henry. I know it will be a travesty but this is the outcome I fear my Arsenal-supporting brother (at the match tonight) will witness. Both finalists are reknowned for their attacking flair, however each has reached the final courtesy of a miserly defence, conceding a solitary goal from open play between them and that was scored against the Catalans. So, I'm expecting a more cagey game than is widely anticipated. That said, I still hope that Barcelona will confound my pessimistic prediction and vanquish the ex-invincibles in style - Força Barça!

Comments

[Abiola]

Well, not being a Man U. partisan, I can't say I share your preferences on the matter, but it looks like you got your wish after all. Sometimes the bookies do call these things right, unfortunately ...

[Frank McGahon]

It's actually not for partisan reasons I wished to see Arsenal denied. Rather, Barcelona are worthy European champions. This years model of Arsenal, despite a decent run in europe, were not. They were fortunate to grab fourth place in the Premiership on the last day of the season and are easily inferior to Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea, none of which were serious European contenders this year. The same might have been said of Liverpool last year and their win, following that of Porto had drained away what little prestige was still associated with the tournament. Thankfully for the tournament, the trophy was lifted by proper European champions this year.

[Ciarán]

I was rooting for Barca too, for reasons of domestic harmony, and predicted the score accurately (utter serendipity, mind).

I thought it was a terribly sad way for Arsenal to go, though. Lehmann deserved to be sent off (and pity poor Pires) but I thought it sort of put an unfortunate gloss on proceedings from there on in.

[Frank McGahon]

It did. But not just for Arsenal. Barcelona were certainly hard done by with the "goal" disallowed and the freekick awarded for Eboué's dive which led to Arsenal's opener. Despite the whingings of gooners and "neutrals" (yeah, right) Barcelona were worthy winners and there's no basis for believing that had Lehmann spurned the opportunity to take Eto'o down and he had scored, they would have had what it took to beat Barcelona. Their best chance of winning was to nick a goal and tightly chaperone Ronaldinho (which is what they more or less did after the sending off)- this presupposes they don't go a goal behind so in the alternative reality version of the game, they are still a goal down. Evryone talks about how Arsenal had the better of Barcelona in the first few minutes. Sure, the first three or four minutes. But, from then until the sending off Barcelona were in complete control and easily the better side.

[Gerry O'Sullivan]

Oh dear. Schadenfreude is neither big nor clever.