A toast to the champions of Europe

Carles Puyol proved to us that he deserves a Golden Globe award for best supporting character. The boy from the theater of dreams, Cristiano Ronaldo was up staged by the diving antics of Puyol, who went down to the ground, quite easily at times, accompanied with the facial expression of a mother giving birth. Finally, Ronaldo gets a taste of his own medicine.

Carles Puyol, i salute you.

Given the circumstances that Manchester United were on course to be the first team to win back to back European titles of the new format, they were far superior favourites to win it.

But pundits were left scrambling as their predictions went wrong. Awfully wrong.

While Barcelona are being lauded for their tiki taka method of short passing movements, Manchester United had an off day last night. They could have done better. And it wasn't a cracking game as i expected it to be. Quite rightly, it was a stroll in the park for Barcelona.

The trio of Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, who is fast becoming a cultured holding midfielder was enough to dent the attacking threat of United. It was a joy to watch the fluidity and the silky slick passing of Barcelona, orchestrated by Xavi Hernandez.

The strength in depth of the English Premier League came into the spotlight last night. The riches of the top four teams can't be questioned, but the gulf existing between the top four and the other teams is enormous. The same statement should not be mentioned with La Liga, in which the teams out of the top four are far better than their counterparts in the EPL.

And while the new faces at Old Trafford are more of a mixture of international up and coming stars, Barcelona have been producing prodigies of their own and most of them are Catalunians, which is important when it comes to understanding the roots of the club. The appointment of Guardiola is a master stroke, as he himself came through the youth system to become one of the legends as a player and now, he is re-writing the history books with his humility as a coach.

And as for Liverpool, they only harbour Gerrard and Carragher as scousers and i would love to see few more local lads to break into the first team.

But for now, Barcelona deserves all the plaudits. Kings of Europe. Undisputed.