Josep Guardiola could barely contain his delight as he was applauded both in and out of the news conference that followed FC Barcelona’s 2-0 defeat of Manchester United FC in the UEFA Champions League final. “We’re not the best team in Barça history but we’ve had the best season,” he said of his treble winners. Although Sir Alex Ferguson “expected better” from the holders, he paid tribute to the victors’ stylish football and admitted “the better team won”.

Josep Guardiola, Barcelona coach
I’m leaving [the job] straight away tomorrow – I can’t do anything to top this … We’re very happy, delirious. We’re aware that we’ve done something magnificent. I’d like to congratulate the whole club and the fans. We’re not the best team in Barça history but we’ve had the best season. We’ve won three trophies but it’s also about how we’ve won them. As a player it was great to win this trophy for the first time. Now we have three which isn’t as many as other clubs but we’re getting closer to a select group of mythical teams. I’ve said many times that we’re fortunate to have the legacy of Johan Cruyff and Charlie Rexach. They were the fathers and we’ve followed them.

At the beginning of the game we didn’t expect Manchester United to press so high. They caused us problems and we have to admit they had a great chance to score from Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick [in the second minute]. We scored with our first chance and then tried to move the ball inside. In the semi-final last year we noticed Messi had problems with Evra so we decided to move Leo from out wide to have one more player in midfield. He’s the best right now and has written his name on the Ballon d’Or. Messi has a real talent and will never hide – when the going gets tough he really gets going.

I have to process my emotions now as we’ve done something wonderful. We’re not a tall side and have defended without a few regular players but we attacked and defended well against the best team in the world. Give me a few days to rest and then I’ll tell you how I’m going to tackle next year. I just want to play well and be back here again. You can play badly and still win, but if you are daring and attack you have a better chance of winning – there’s nothing more dangerous than not taking a risk. You can enjoy a victory but with time you enjoy it even more. Tomorrow we will celebrate with Catalonia.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager
There’s disappointment at the performance, and some individuals will feel that themselves. Our best performances this season have been when we’ve defended very well and tonight it was shoddy – the first goal in particular which gave them a great boost. We didn’t plan to concede a goal as early as that. You have to give credit to a very good Barcelona team – the better team won. When they get in front of you they keep the ball, and after the opening goal all the midfielders closed in and kept possession, making it very difficult to get it back.

We’ve done well to get to a final but had to win it to change the pattern of teams defending the trophy. It was a big opportunity for us and with our players I expected better, but we couldn’t recover from losing the first goal. We knew before the game what a good footballing team they are. Last year we had no difficulty defending against them, tonight we did after the first goal as Messi dropped into midfield and made it difficult for us. They have to be one of the best teams we’ve played, at what they do. They have fantastic possession of the ball and credit to them as they pursue their philosophy and don’t change.

I’ve been quite pleased with the maturity of the team. Tonight the disappointment was the use of the ball when we had possession. We had to wait minutes to get it back and when we did we weren’t good enough. It could be an off night, or could be that we found the mountain too big to climb after being a goal down. It’s a great achievement in [Guardiola's] first year as coach so well done … fantastic. All his players want to play, keep the ball, and enjoy their football, so all credit to him.

FC Barcelona were crowned European champions for a third time – and the second in four seasons – as a vibrant display of pass and move, capped by goals in either half from Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi, defeated Manchester United FC in Rome.

Holders toppled
United, bidding to become the first team to successfully defend the trophy in the UEFA Champions League era, began an open contest at breakneck speed as Cristiano Ronaldo threatened three times. After ten minutes, however, Eto’o put the Spanish champions ahead and they never looked back. Xavi Hernández struck a post early in the second period and, though the clinching second goal did not arrive until the 70th minute – via, unusually, the head of Messi – Josep Guardiola’s side were worthy winners. The 38-year-old becomes the sixth man to lift the European Champion Clubs’ Cup as player and coach; United are the sixth club to lose the final as holders.

Relentless Ronaldo
Fourteen of the players who started the game had featured in a UEFA Champions League final before, yet initially it seemed United’s experience would prove more telling. Ronaldo made his presence felt by unleashing a dipping free-kick that Víctor Valdés could only parry; former United defender Gerard Piqué’s last-ditch tackle prevented Ji-Sung Park from converting the rebound. Ronaldo then had Valdés scrambling across goal twice in as many minutes with shots from distance. If an early breakthrough looked imminent, disastrously for United it arrived when Barcelona struck with their first real attack.

Eto’o brilliance
Fit-again Andrés Iniesta was the orchestrator, finding Eto’o inside the area, but there was still plenty for the striker to do with Nemanja Vidić in close attendance. One swift turn inside the centre-back later, Eto’o was free to prod a shot inside Edwin van der Sar’s near post. United’s vocal supporters were stunned into silence and their team mirrored that reaction, with Barcelona enjoying the better of the half thereafter. Perhaps not surprisingly against the competition’s best defence, however, clear chances were at a premium. Long-range efforts from Messi and Xavi, and a low Messi cross fumbled by Van der Sar, were the best Barça could muster.

United reprieves
Sir Alex Ferguson had said beforehand that his best team-talks “usually come to me about three in the morning” and the Scot sorely needed inspiration in his half-time instructions, opting to introduce Carlos Tévez for Anderson. This did little to stem the tide. Thierry Henry tricked his way past Rio Ferdinand only to shoot weakly against Van der Sar before Xavi curled a free-kick beyond the keeper, the post coming to United’s rescue. Then Wayne Rooney’s right-wing centre bounced over Park’s lunge as the holders began to edge their way back into proceedings, disrupting Barcelona’s rhythm though creating little of their own.

Messi decisive
Twenty minutes from time, that hard work was undone. Xavi was allowed to advance down the right; with time and space, the midfielder measured a pinpoint cross for Messi, enjoying similar freedom, and the UEFA Champions League’s top scorer produced a fabulous header for his ninth goal of this campaign. Valdés promptly denied Ronaldo to preserve the two-goal cushion, yet the better openings continued to come at the other end – Van der Sar frustrating Carles Puyol twice and Iniesta. Sir Alex therefore missed out on joining Bob Paisley as the only manager to lift three European Cups. Instead, Guardiola’s superbly inventive Barça became the first Spanish side to win league, cup and UEFA Champions League in the same season.

FC Barcelona and Manchester United FC are ready to put on a spectacle worthy of a place in history when they meet in the UEFA Champions League final in Rome, the Eternal City.

Stirring finale
Two of European football’s most evocative names, the newly crowned champions of England and Spain, cross paths at the Stadio Olimpico with United aiming to become the first team in 19 years to successfully defend the European Champion Clubs’ Cup and the first in the UEFA Champions League era. Having already lifted the Liga and Copa del Rey this month Barcelona have the chance to claim an unprecedented Spanish treble. It promises to be one of the more stylish gladiatorial contests staged in the city of the Colosseum, with Sir Alex Ferguson saying simply: “It has the capability to be a fantastic final.”

History help
United have never lost a European Cup final while two of this competition’s three previous showpiece matches in Rome ended in an English victory. According to Sir Alex, another success is essential to justify his club’s ever-growing stature. “I’ve repeated many times we should have done better in Europe. To be in the pantheon of great teams, the prerequisite is to win this cup. It’s an opportunity for us to go alongside a lot of the great teams. This team has that type of future – it’s a young squad with the right type of experience which can do well in the next few years. Hopefully we can endorse that.”

United and Barça Promise ‘Fantastic’ Final … read more »

“A dream has come true,” enthused Felix Magath as his VfL Wolfsburg players began celebrating a Bundesliga title that few expected them to even challenge for at the start of the season. Only a top-flight presence since 1997, the German champions were able to crack open the champagne after downing Werder Bremen 5-1 on the final day of the campaign.

Slow start
“I knew we were good but I didn’t think we had a chance to win the title,” explained Magath, whose side were still as low as ninth during the winter break, nine points shy of then joint-leaders TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and FC Bayern München. Due to take over at FC Schalke 04 next term, the 55-year-old nonetheless feels his charges were worthy winners in the end. “We’ve put in strong performances all season and I believe we deserved to win the championship.”

Bayern congratulations
While Hoffenheim faded without injured striker Vedad Ibišević after the turn of the year and Bayern never settled into a consistent rhythm, Wolfsburg surged up the standings courtesy of 14 victories in 17 games, losing just twice. Perhaps none of those wins was more meaningful than the 5-1 demolition of runners-up Bayern on 4 April. “I explicitly want to congratulate Wolfsburg for winning the German championship – they deserve it,” said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, while caretaker coach Jupp Heynckes added: “VfL deservedly won the title. They’ve played the best football, especially in the second half of the season.”

Zwanziger surprise
“Before the season started, I did not count on Wolfsburg finishing in the top five,” admitted the German Football Association (DFB) president, Theo Zwanziger. “For me, this is an incredible achievement which will always be associated with the name Felix Magath. He has managed to build a strong team full of stars and talents and in the end achieved one of the biggest upsets in the Bundesliga in the past few years.”

Team reaction
“At the moment, it’s difficult to realise what’s happening here, but it’s absolutely merited,” explained Wolfsburg midfielder Christian Gentner, who celebrated another surprise Bundesliga title with VfB Stuttgart in 2007. His colleague Sascha Riether was of much the same opinion, saying: “This title is the icing on the cake of a great season, at the end of which we’ve deservedly finished on top.”

Strike duo
The newly-crowned champions made it 15 home victories in succession by overcoming Bremen, having remained unbeaten in their back yard all season. Essential to their success was the incredible form of strike duo Grafite and Edin Džeko, the former topping the Bundesliga scoring charts with 28 efforts and his team-mate only two behind. “Today, there will be the biggest party Wolfsburg has ever seen,” promised Džeko.

An extra-time goal from Brazilian midfielder Jadson earned Shakhtar Donetsk a 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup final here on Wednesday to clinch the Ukrainian side’s first European title.

Jadson’s 15-yard shot slipped through the grasp of Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese in the 97th minute after the teams had been locked 1-1 at the end of normal time.

The Germans thought they had snatched an equaliser in the last minute of the additional period, only for on-loan Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro’s bundled effort to be ruled out for a foul on Dmytro Chygrynskiy.

Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano had finished coolly to give Shakhtar the lead in the first half, before an error by goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov allowed Werder centre-back Naldo to level.

Shakhtar become the first team from Ukraine to lift a European trophy since the break-up of the Soviet Union, while they will also be the last team to lift the UEFA Cup before its re-launch as the Europa League next season.

“We weren’t able to play our usual football, we didn’t put enough pressure on our opponents,” said Werder coach Thomas Schaaf.

“We gave them too much space and lost too many balls. I congratulate Shakhtar, they were the best team on the night.”

Mircea Lucescu’s side settled first at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium and spurned the game’s first clear opening when Adriano shot wide after being cleverly picked out on the cusp of the Werder area by Jadson.

The Ukrainians, inspired by the inter-play of their five-man Brazilian contingent, then went ahead in the 25th minute when Adriano ran onto a loose pass and delicately lifted the ball over the advancing Wiese.

Werder had overturned deficits against pre-tournament favourites AC Milan and local German rivals Hamburg earlier in the competition, and 10 minutes before half-time they drew level when Naldo’s thumping 30-yard free-kick was tamely palmed into the net by Ukraine international Pyatov.

Wiese proved to be made of sterner stuff when he superbly touched away a stinging drive from Mariusz Lewandowski at full-stretch just before the interval.

The German shot-stopper kept out a Jadson free-kick early in the second period as Shakhtar resumed their occupation of the Werder defensive third, the orange-shirted players zipping passes across the pitch with beguiling ease.

Werder missed the promptings of their suspended Brazilian playmaker Diego, but they were inches away from going in front when Pizarro’s glanced header was repelled by a sprawling Pyatov.

Wiese pushed away a long-range effort from Darijo Srna as Shakhtar began extra-time on the front foot and moments later they took a decisive lead when Jadson met Srna’s centre with a low drive that crept beneath Wiese into the bottom-left corner.