Eric Abidal Reveals How Barca Made Manchester United Players 'Angry' in 2011 Champions League Final

Published on: 27 September 2016

The 2011 Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United was a pretty one-sided affair, with Barca ultimately running out 3-1 winners.


Now, one of the Barcelona's defenders on the night, Eric Abidal, has discussed the game's final half hour in his book.

The matchwas particularly memorable for the French left-back because only a few months prior to the Wembley-staged centrepiece, Abidal had been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver - hefought incredibly hard to recover and played in the final, which featured goals from Messi, Pedro and a screamer from David Villa.


Wayne Rooney scored what ultimately proved little more thana consolation for United.


InAbidal's own words, the thing that most stood out on a grand night for the Catalans was that final thirty minutes:


The thing I remember most about that final is the last half an hour.


The English players were angry, really furious, because we had turned Wembley into a huge rondo and there was nothing they could do about it.�

Abidal doesn't stop there.


''They kept swearing, shouting everything under the sun. It was incredible. Some of my teammates couldn't understand them, but I could. 'That's enough, stop f**cking about. We're dead. And there are still twenty-five minutes left!'''


Abidal concluded:Xavi, Iniesta, (Lionel) Messi, (Sergio) Busquets, (Dani) Alves, who was practically a midfielder that day, kept going: pim-pam, pim-pam, pim-pam.�

In fairness, that particular Barca midfield was literally as good as it gets and they would have put ANY opposing midfield into a spin, not just United's.

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