NEVER SEND BOYS TO DO A MAN'S JOB:

Unable to bend the ball, am I as wrong in my self-belief as Man United? (Will Buckley, 31 May 2009, The Observer )

United's fatal mistake was to believe the hype. They believed they were the equals of Barcelona. They believed they could play them at their own game. They believed wrongly.

None more so than Alex Ferguson, who allowed this delusion to influence his selection. In the Premier League you can get away without picking a midfield if you defend properly and have an array of talented strikers. You cannot afford such laxity against a team as fluent as Barcelona. Guus Hiddink realised this and picked a Chelsea side chosen to frustrate in the first leg and one which limited his rivals to one shot in the second. Rafa Benítez, with Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano at his disposal for Liverpool, would never have made the same mistake. Either team would have given Barcelona a match; they might even have won.