Manchester United vs Barcelona 2011: No Lionel Messi in 2-1 Win for Premier League Champions

By Daniel Blake, Christian Post Contributor Saturday, July 30, 2011

Manchester United beat Barcelona 2-1 in front of more than 80,000 people in the FedEx Field in Washington Saturday evening.

Goals from Nanu and Michael Owen were enough for the English Premier League champions to get a small degree of revenge for their loss earlier this year in the Champions League Final to the Spanish outfit.

United took the lead through Nani in the first half but Barcelona equalized in the 70th minute though Thiago Alcantara, who received a short pass from substitute Carlos Carmona. He scored from about 35 yards out with a smashed shot that flew into the top left corner of David De Gea's net.

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However, Barcelona’s joy was short lived and just six minutes later Manchester United regained the lead when sloppy passing by the Barcelona midfield was punished. Former England international regular Owen, who was on for Wayne Rooney, used placement instead of power and pushed the ball past Victor Valdes to start celebrations for the United supporters.

The victory will obviously be little consolation for the loss in the Champions League Final to the Spanish Champions earlier this year, but the English team, like any, will take a certain degree of satisfaction with any kind of win over the recognized best club team in the world at the moment.

The starting line-ups for the match were:

Barcelona Starting XI: Valdes; Fontas, Abidal, Alcantara, Keita; Busquets, Iniesta, dos Santos; Villa, Pedro, Afellay. Subs: Pinto, Masip, Balliu, Pique, Puyol, Xavi, Suarez, Riverola, Cabelino, Lozano, Muniesa, Carmona, Espinosa, Cuenca

Manchester United Starting XI: De Gea; Evra, Vidic, Evans, Rafael; Cleverly, Anderson, Young, Nani; Rooney, Welbeck. Subs: Lindegaard, Amos, Jones, Ferdinand, Smalling, Fabio, Obertan, Owen, Giggs, Carrick, Park, Diouf, Berbatov, Macheda