• Barcelona 3-1 Man Utd, Champions League final

Barca deserved to win - Vidic

ESPNsoccernet staff
May 29, 2011
Pedro fires Barcelona ahead © Getty Images
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Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic admitted his side were beaten by the better team as Barcelona ran out 3-1 winners in the Champions League final at Wembley.

Pedro, Lionel Messi and David Villa grabbed the goals for Barcelona, with Wayne Rooney scoring for the English champions and Vidic praised the performance of the Catalan masters.

''I think if you look at it we have never played a team in the past like Barcelona, they played good football and deserved to win,'' he told ITV.

''We tried to press high and in some parts of the game we did well. The goals we lost, we didn't do what we have to do to close their players down. When they have time on the ball they can make the final pass and that is what they did.''

Vidic's defensive partner Rio Ferdinand concurred with his skipper's view that United were second best against the four-time winners.

''We gave it a better shot this time than last time (in Rome in 2009), we had a couple of opportunities,'' he told Sky Sports. ''We got back in it at 1-1 and thought we could come back and win but it wasn't to be, we have to give them credit.

''A couple of the goals were preventable but you have to give credit where it's due. They've got a system they work to and did it well. We had a game plan we thought could beat them, but wasn't to be.''

The game also brought an end to Edwin van der Sar's career and United's Dutch keeper followed the lead of Vidic and Ferdinand by hailing the Barcelona performance

''(I played) one game too many I think, it is not nice to lose of course. They had the better chances and we made one or two mistakes and they punish you,'' he told ITV1.

The 40-year-old also believed he could not have done any better with Messi's long-range effort to put Barca ahead after the break.

''I thought I was positioned well,'' he said. ''He tends to curl it into the far post but he didn't. They are very good, you have to try and score the first goal and we didn't do that. It is not always a given, I thank everyone for the memories.''

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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