Football News

Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola believes the fact the
Champions League final is played at Wembley is
an advantage to Manchester United. Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola believes the fact the
Champions League final is played at Wembley is
an advantage to Manchester United. The two sides collide in the decider of European
football's most prestigious club competition on
Saturday, in a repeat of the 2009 final which saw
Barcelona emerge victorious 2-0. Guardiola says because the final is in England, his
opponents will have an advantage while he also
rejected suggestions that his side are far stronger
than Sir Alex Ferguson's outfit. "It's an advantage because they play there, it's
always more comfortable when you play at
home," Guardiola said. "I don't know the distance from Manchester to
London, but one hour and a half is always more
comfortable, for the supporters, for the team, for
the refs, for everything. But we knew that at the
beginning of the season so it's not a problem for
us to travel in London. " "We know in England the atmosphere helps lifts
the football there in their country. So for us it is
always a pleasure." Much of the media build-up has been about how
the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta
will simply be too good for a Manchester United
side missing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and
Carlos Tevez - who both featured in Rome in the
2009 final. And although Guardiola conceded Ronaldo is a
big loss, he still expects a big challenge from
Ferguson's side. "In the United team there are still a lot of top
names that were in the final in 2009 although
(Cristiano) Ronaldo has gone. Ronaldo is an
important player but they are still a powerful
team," he said. "They have a lot of depth and are capable of four
or five different line-ups without any problem.
They are always competitive and are one of the
best teams in the world and have been for the
last five or ten years." "I saw United play in the second leg of the
(Champions League) semi-final against Schalke
and they were very strong even without several
important players." "We are up against (Wayne) Rooney, (Antonio)
Valencia and Chicharito (Hernandez) who are
very good players that can pressure us a lot and
are very dangerous in space. On top of that,
though, they have a strong defence. Ferguson
has been at the top for many years and is one of the great names of football."