United ready to attack Barcelona in Euro showdown

The statue of late English football player Bobby Moore Barcelona will seek to seal their status as the finest team of their generation here Saturday when they face Manchester United at Wembley in the most eagerly-anticipated Champions League final in years.
A second triumph in three years -- and their third since 2006 -- will provide irrefutable proof that Pep Guardiola's team deserve to be bracketed alongside legendary teams like Real Madrid's 1950s vintage, Johan Cruyff's Ajax or the Dutch-influenced AC Milan of the 1990s.
Blocking the route to immortality, however, are United, the newly crowned English champions who are desperate to avenge their bitterly disappointing defeat to the Spanish giants in the Rome final two years ago.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has never spoken in detail about what he believes went wrong in 2009, when his team were taken for a dizzying ride on Barcelona's famous midfield "carousel" in a 2-0 defeat.
The obvious temptation for Ferguson as United attempt to avoid a repeat of that chastening experience, is to bolster his midfield with an extra man.
Yet to do so would mean having to sacrifice the burgeoning partnership between Wayne Rooney, back to something close to his best, and Javier Hernandez, the young Mexican striker who has been the find of United's season

To prevail at Wembley they will have to come up with a gameplan that neutralises an attack led by Lionel Messi, operating in front of a bejeweled midfield encrusted with the twin talents of Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.
Messi has been in magical form for Barcelona in Europe, contributing 11 goals and evoking tributes from some admirers that he already deserves to be ranked alongside the likes of Pele and Diego Maradona.
One more goal on Saturday will see Messi equal Ruud van Nistlerooy's record of 12 in a single Champions League campaign.
But displaying the sort of modesty that is part of the diminutive Argentinian's appeal, Messi says he is not interested in personal milestones

Arsenal scored a 2-1 victory over the Catalans in the last 16 first leg in February, stunning Guardiola's men with two late goals to claim a narrow advantage.
The asterisk against that memorable night in north London however is that Barcelona would have been out of sight by half-time had it not been for uncharacteristic profligacy by Messi and David Villa in an opening period where Arsenal's defence was sliced open repeatedly.

The message Ferguson has been drumming into his players is that one lapse of concentration on Saturday could be fatal.
It was slack play that led to Barcelona's early opening goal from Samuel Eto'o in Rome two years ago, setting United on the path to defeat.
"We lost the first goal due to that sudden lapse of concentration, that was what cost us really," Ferguson reflected. "After that they withdrew Messi into central midfield and that made it very difficult for us.
"So concentration is going to be important in terms of attacking and defending. That will be the key for us."