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Atletico can nick win in Barcelona slow-burner

MAN UNITED used to have a bus to take their players on tours of the city parading any number of pieces of silverware won during Fergie time.

 

Now the only use they've got for it is to park it in front of David de Gea's goal and hope it's good enough to keep out Bayern Munich. How times change.

It worked at Old Trafford where the locals were treated to a performance of Chelsea-esque proportions to stop Bayern from running riot. Had Danny Welbeck remembered that he is, in fact, Danny Welbeck and not Lionel Messi and leathered the thing instead of trying a piece of deft skill of which he's clearly incapable, United could even have won.

I thought Welbeck's miss was the highlight of the first leg until Bastian Schweinsteiger's red card. It wasn't so much him getting sent off that was funny - indeed, it wasn't, since I was on the Germans - but it was when he suggested that Wayne Rooney had dived that I started to roll around. I think the Schwein made that limp diving motion towards Rooney just as he was about to walk past Arjen Robben en route to the tunnel. Oh, the irony!

So can lightning strike twice? Can Bayern be as clueless again in trying to break down a decent defence? I'll say no but I'm not going to take 2-7 to be proved right.

I quite like the look of Atletico to beat Barcelona in the April heat of the All-Spanish Watching Paint Dry competition staged in Madrid.

Barca going through their training ground routine against a team who, as it stands, will happily take a 0-0 draw, isn't going to make for the most entertaining of showdowns.

It's got to flare up at some point, however, and I can see Atletico nicking a win late on.

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