New Delhi: The manager that Sir Alex Ferguson is, expect a prompt reply conceding his team did not turn up at the races if he saw the team had been outperformed. The 3-1 whipping at Anfield in the recently concluded 2010-11 season and the man from Govan was quick to lay into his United troops for always being second best on the pitch that day.
Manchester United did heal that wound with an unprecedented 19th league gong and the demons of their Kop debacle were put to rest.
The 2009 Champions League final at Rome saw both sides were tagged as even favourites to win the tie on the night, but United's showing at the zenith of the European competition looked more like pretenders than contenders. The frustration was evident, the pain clear and present. Right in front of his eyes, the Scot saw his team taken apart piece by piece, minute by minute. If Sir Alex Ferguson vents his anger on someone like Paul Scholes, you know he is not at peace.
Fast forward to 2011, and the wounds which were masked by time rather than the sweetness of success unravel again and with it bring a shot at retribution, and such is the steel of the gaffer who is hardened by the reign of a quarter of a century at one of the most eminent clubs on the face of this Earth, that the phrase 'Once bitten, twice shy' makes little sense.
It has now taken a subtle turn to 'Once defeated, twice conquered'
With Barcelona clearly the superior team when it comes to individual match-ups, it will be the guile and experience of Fergie which will go a long way in deciding the outcome of the encounter.
A noted author coined the phrase 'The universe provides', where United have been provided with a manager second to none to compensate for individual brilliance of a buoyant Barcelona. Destiny has brought Sir Alex full circle, eye-to-eye with the forlorn enemy and on the threshold of unmatchable glory.
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