IT’S FIRST BLOOD TO BARCA
Messi in the wars as Suarez helps put United to the sword
THE night ended as it had started, with the ball on the end of a length of Barcelona string. Yellow shirt to yellow shirt to yellow shirt. On and on and on as Manchester United’s players hustled backwards and sideways in hope more than expectation of ever becoming involved.
It can be like that against Barcelona and United have suffered before.
The ‘Barcelona carousel’ was what Sir Alex Ferguson called it at the start of the decade and few have ever described it as perfectly. If United don’t get a foothold early in the Nou Camp next week, then it could be a while before their heads stop spinning.
But the truth of this game is a little different to that presented by statistics that show, for example, that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team did not manage a shot on target all evening.
That is hardly a method taken from the great United European playbook of yesteryear but nor is it something that tells us everything about an hour and a half of play that could have yielded something for the home team if only they had been a little braver, a little calmer and a little cuter.
This was not one of those Barcelona performances to drool over. The runaway La Liga leaders started with mesmerising purpose and did not give United a kick for half an hour.
When Luis Suarez panicked Luke Shaw in to deflecting his far post header in to his own goal at the Stretford End in only the 12th minute, it felt a little as though a Catalan storm was brewing.
However, it never came. Barcelona became clumsy and careless and even a little clunky.
Either side of half-time, United looked as though they may be on the verge of taking advantage but never quite managed it and, by the end, it was Barcelona asking all
the relevant questions once again. Briefly, tantalisingly, United carried a threat, especially from wide areas. When it mattered, they could not find a pass, or a cross of sufficient quality to really bring their night to life.
Solskjaer — for whom every day must currently represent the steepest of learning curves — perhaps set the tone for the night with his selection.
It was a United team packed full of workhorses such as Scott McTominay and the Brazilian Fred, while the coltish attacking talents of Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial were left on the bench.
In terms of the United formation, it looked like a back four but it quickly became a back five or six or seven when Barcelona were on the ball.
Little wonder, then, that the Catalan side pushed forward so relentlessly early on. United simply invited pressure, tactically and mentally. Any deeper and they would have been sitting next to their own supporters.
To play this way and succeed you must not concede early. Here, United failed. Sergio Busquets played the ball over the United central defenders into Lionel Messi and when he turned and chipped to the far post, Suarez headed across and in off Shaw. A linesman flagged for offside but there was none and the goal was correctly awarded after a quick VAR intervention.
The rest of the night now seemed pretty well mapped out. United were in neutral, going nowhere. When the half-hour mark arrived, their centre-forward Romelu Lukaku had touched the ball twice. The Old Trafford ball boys had been busier.
But, perhaps becalmed by the ease of it all, Barcelona fell strangely out of step. Passes began to miss their targets, possession was lost in dangerous areas.
Encouraged, United found some go forward and for the 15 minutes either side of half-time they were the better team.
Barcelona looked particularly uncomfortable when United delivered from wide and, although they broke in the 36th minute for Philippe Countinho to bring a good save from David de Gea, it was United who left the field at the break feeling rueful after young Diogo Dalot misdirected a free header at the far post after being found by Marcus Rashford.
That felt like a huge moment and so it transpired. United were aggressive again in the early stage of the second half and Old Trafford began to sense a possible breakthrough.
But once Rashford volleyed too hurriedly when a cross from the right was palmed straight to him by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the United threat receded once again.
Quite why, it is hard to say. The quality of the opposition is relevant, obviously.
But so is the fact United had no one on the field capable or willing to slow down, lift his head and find a piece of real quality.
Huff and puff and rush and push will get bums off seats but at this level something more cerebral is required and at the end of the night it was hard to wonder again about the real value of Paul Pogba.
By the close of play, United were hanging on a little.
Suarez wasted what was for him a straightforward chance, firing rashly in to the side netting after Nelson Semedo played him clear, before De Gea saved from Jordi Alba and Shaw intervened to prevent substitute Sergi Roberto easing through. Shaw is suspended for the return leg and will be missed.
As the pace of the game started to take its toll on United, so Barcelona began to pick holes in them and that is what makes Solskjaer’s team vulnerable next week. United will have to chase the game in the Nou Camp and that will not suit them at all.
They have done some remarkable things on the road in Europe this season. Victories at Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain seem scarcely believable to this day. But to do it again in Spain, they will need to better than this and they will need to be lucky.
It is just as big an ask it is appears in print.
MANCHESTER UNITED (3-5-2): De Gea 7, Smalling 7, Lindelof 6, Shaw 6; Young 5, McTominay 8, Fred 6, Pogba 6, Dalot 6 (Lingard 74); Rashford 6 (Pereira 85), Lukaku 6 (Martial 68). Subs not used: Romero, Jones, Rojo, Mata. Booked: Smalling, Shaw, Lingard. BARCELONA (4-3-3): Ter Stegen 6; Semedo 7, Pique 7, Lenglet 6, Alba 6; Arthur 6 (Roberto 66), Busquets 6 (Alena 90), Rakitic 6; Messi 6, Suarez 7, Coutinho 6 (Vidal 65). Subs not used: Cillessen, Umtiti, Malcom, Dembele.Booked: Busquets, Vidal. Man of the match: Scott McTominay. Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (Ita). Attendance: 74,093.