Sport: Champions League final 2009

"Good evening everybody, and a very warm welcome to one and all of you wherever you may be. Here's hoping for a wonderful game of football between Manchester United and Barcelona in Rome's Stadio Olimpico tonight." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

The Champions League trophy standing at the side of the pitch prior to kick-off. Manchester United are going for their fourth European Cup; Barcelona their third. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"Sky anchorman Richard Keys is already saying that 'on nights like these we're all Englishmen'" and while this young United fan probably is, it doesn't necessarily apply to the Sky panel: "Dutchman Ruud Gullit and Scotland's Graeme Souness and Planet Inanity's Jamie Redknapp." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

Early in the match, Lionel Messi skips away from the attentions of Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick. The Argentine's influence grew steadily as the game progressed Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

After 10 minutes: "Barcelona land a sucker-punch on United, scoring with their first attack. Iniesta drifts past Anderson and slips the ball to Eto'o on the right channel. He cuts inside Vidic and toe-pokes the ball past Van Der Sar into the botom left-hand corner." In this picture: Eto'o is pounced upon by Iniesta after the goal Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"Wow! There's no respite for United as Barcelona win a corner. It's sent in from the left and drops nicely for Messi, who swings and misses. United clear. Where's the defending?" Well, that's Nemanja Vidic right there. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

A rare first-half touch for Wayne Rooney. "23 min: Rooney has been noticably quiet thus far, which is kind of understandable because Cristiano Ronaldo seems determined to win the game single-handedly for Manchester United." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

With more space appearing in the second half, Messi increased his threat. So much so that... Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"70 min: Messi breaks his scoring duck against an English team as John O'Shea [and, here, Edwin Van Der Sar] stands staring at him with slack-jawed astonishment ... the Argentinian leaps on the edge of the six-yard box, contorts in the air, arches his neck backwards and steers a cushioned header across Van der Sar and into the far corner. That is a marvellous goal, but the defending was abysmal." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"65 min: Manchester United substitution: Park off, Berbatov on." "87 min: Berbatov's been leaden-footed of touch, inaccurate of shot and generally worse than useless since coming on - it's time Ferguson cut his losses, admitted buying the Bulgarian was a mistake and got rid of him." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"90+1 min: Manchester United are 2-0 down in injury-time in a Champions League final and their opponents are taking the piss out of them, stroking the ball around the edges of their (the United) penalty area. Their humiliation is complete." Cristiano Ronaldo reflects on that damning assessment Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

Barca fans set off fire-crackers at the final whistle Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"9.45pm: Sir Alex Ferguson is standing on the pitch looking very dazed and confused. He's been let down by plenty of his big-name players tonight: O'Shea, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick, Anderson, Rooney, Giggs, Berbatov, Scholes ... were all very, very poor." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"Barcelona's players go up the red and gold steps surrounding what looks a bit like the bridge of a spaceship on Star Trek or Flash Gordon, receive their medals and wait for Carles Puyol to arse his way through the throng ("we're gonna need a bigger stage") and pick up the trophy from Michel Platini. He hoists it into the Rome sky, the ticker-tape cannons explode and Barcelona's players set off on their lap of honour." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

Messi celebrates with his winners medal Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

The Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola is thrown into the air by his players Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

"If you backed Thierry Henry to be the first player to put the trophy on his head, go and collect." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins

Sir Alex speaks: "A bad start for us ... they can keep the ball all night ... we got some half-chances ... we weren't at our best ... to be fair we were beaten by a better team ... the heat didn't bother us, it was a nice night ... cough, splutter ... they defended very well ... we thought we'd be able to get at their back four but we couldn't ... we're still a young team and we can improve from this." Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Tom Jenkins