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ARSHAVIN STAKES AT BARCELONA
Andrei Arshavin stakes at Barcelona's narrow
victory in tonight Champions League final match in Rome.
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Photo REUTERS
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Ahead of the Champions League final match Sport Express
spoke to the player, who doesn't hide his sympathy for Barcelona and at
the same time could be one of the main Russian experts in Manchester United.
Arsenal striker Andrei Arshavin shared his predictions on tonight final
battle in Rome.
"Undoubtedly the match will be very tense", said Arshavin. "I
think Barcelona will want to possess the ball more, while Manchester United
won't be against such tactics and will try to catch their opponents on
counterattacks. Result of the game will mostly depend on which team will
open the score".
"My prediction for this match is 1:0 in Barcelona's favour, however
my predictions rarely come true".
"It's a difficult task to any team in the world to keep back Cristiano
Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. Moreover Manchester United will have more athletic
players, so they are likely to count on setpieces".
"Of course Barcelona fans counts first of all on Messi, but I think
they have so many players, who are able to win the whole game thanks to
their individual qualities. It's their main strong point".
"One of the most important think for Barcelona will be to neutralize
Cristiano Ronaldo, that will be the half of their success in the match
against Manchester United. But it will be very difficult to realize".
"Many experts believe that the final game will be some kind of a
competition of two players - Messi and Ronaldo. To my mind any game is
a rivalry of two teams, but not of two players regardless of who they
are. If Barcelona doesn't pick their best play, Messi is unlikely to do
something on his own, and the same thing concerns Ronaldo. Both players
have good chances to score, however these players are really the best
men in their teams and naturally fans wait something extraordinary from
them".
"Daniel Alves and Eric Abidal won't help Barcelona tonight and it's
not very pleasant for the Spanish outfit. I am hopeful that they won't
give Manchester United an opportunity to possess the ball more".
"Alex Ferguson is a great coach. He built his team three or four
years ago and gradually led them to success. Nevertheless the fate of
the match is always solved on the pitch and Manchester United has enough
stars, who can do it".
"As for Barcelona Guardiola's main achievement is that he managed
to create a wonderful atmosphere in the team, which guarantees necessary
discipline and let their stars show their best on the field".
Sport
Express Daily, 27 May 2009
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