Rio Ferdinand reveals ho Lionel Messi and his teammates embarrassed him and his teammates at the Champions League semi-final at the Wembley.
Rio Ferdinand has never been short of praise for Lionel Messi and has always been vocal about how he have felt helpless when he faced Messi in the two Champions League final he has played against him.
On both the occasions the Argentine International’s side has defeated Manchester United easily. Ferdinand shed light on a conversation with fellow United legends Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, in which the defender admitted his dejection.
‘Barca gave us an absolute lesson at Wembley,’ Ferdinand told Copa90. ‘I was standing there watching them lift the trophy and me, Giggsy and Scholesy were standing together with our hands over our mouths and I said: “I feel embarrassed lads”.
‘He [Messi] took liberties. Ferdinand paid further tribute to Barcelona magician Messi and believes that, despite also name-checking Ronaldinho, the 32-year-old may be the finest player he has faced.
‘Messi was a killer. Ronaldinho was unreal, the free-flowing magician. But with Messi, he’d do all of that but there was always a goal or an assist at the end of it.’
Manchester United back then was also a very strong side, the defending champions during the 2009 Champions League final while having the solid duo of Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
The English International never would have thought that Xavi could have delivered floated cross over him to find Messi over him. But the Spanish midfielder made an inch-perfect cross to which Messi scored a sensational goal with a glorious header.
In 2011, Pedro opened the scoring on 27 minutes with a simple finish, before Wayne Rooney levelled the scores for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men.
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But further strikes from Messi, a thumping effort from the edge of the penalty area, and David Villa consigned United to runners-up medals once again and added yet more silverware to a glittering period for the current La Liga holders.
