Roads to Rome – how they got there
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
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Manchester United FC and FC Barcelona have taken different paths to the UEFA Champions League final, United establishing a record run without defeat and Barcelona rattling in goals for fun prior to their tense semi-final.
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The old adage goes that all roads lead to Rome, and in the case of Manchester United FC and FC Barcelona they come to a potentially glorious halt at the Stadio Olimpico on 27 May.
Twists and turns
For Barcelona perhaps, the journey has been freighted with greater tension given the semi-final that Josep Guardiola's team played out against Chelsea FC – sealed with the twist of Andrés Iniesta's stoppage time away-goals winner. The Spanish champions-elect have suffered two defeats en route to the Italian capital, losing to Wisła Kraków in the second leg of their third qualifying round tie and going down at home to FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stage – but in both cases after progress had been assured. A more telling statistic is that in 12 games from the group stage onwards they have recorded 30 goals, at a rate of of 2.5 per match.
Strolling along
By contrast, Manchester United, the titleholders, are unbeaten in the UEFA Champions League since their semi-final in 2006/07, when after a 3-2 home success over AC Milan they were defeated by three unanswered goals at San Siro. Since then the English league leaders have been unbreakable over a record 25 matches in the competition, with their defence breached only six times in 12 games this season. Their ultimately comfortable semi-final scalp of Arsenal FC just underlined the nature of the challenge facing Barcelona in three weeks' time.
Roads to Rome
Third qualifying round
Wisła Kraków (h) 4-0
Wisła Kraków (a) 0-1
Group stage (Group C winners)
Sporting Clube de Portugal (h) 3-1
FC Shakhtar Donetsk (a) 2-1
FC Basel 1893 (a) 5-0
FC Basel 1893 (h) 1-1
Sporting Clube de Portugal (a) 5-2
FC Shakhtar Donetsk (h) 2-3
First knockout round
Olympique Lyonnais (a) 1-1
Olympique Lyonnais (h) 5-2
Quarter-finals
FC Bayern München (h) 4-0
FC Bayern München (a) 1-1
Semi-final
Chelsea FC (h) 0-0
Chelsea FC (a) 1-1
Group stage (Group E winners)
Villarreal CF (h) 0-0
Aalborg BK (a) 3-0
Celtic FC (h) 3-0
Celtic FC (a) 1-1
Villarreal CF (a) 0-0
Aalborg BK (h) 2-2
First knockout round
FC Internazionale Milano (a) 0-0
FC Internazionale Milano (h) 2-0
Quarter-finals
FC Porto (h) 2-2
FC Porto (a) 1-0
Semi-finals
Arsenal FC (h) 1-0
Arsenal FC (a) 3-1