Ferguson predicts a classic Champions League final

Saturday's Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona could be a classic between two of the finest teams of the last decade, Alex Ferguson said on Friday.

The Manchester United manager said it was impossible to predict what would happen when the two sides meet at Wembley Stadium in a repeat of the 2009 final which Barcelona won 2-0 in Rome.

The 69-year-old, bidding to join Bob Paisley of Liverpool as the only coach to win Europe's top club competition three times, agreed Saturday's match could be the best final of the decade as he heaped lavish praise on his opposite number Pep Guardiola.

"The success that both teams have had in the last decade has been enormous and it could not just be the final of the decade, but the best final," he said.

"The two teams have great histories, that's obvious, but it's an appealing final in what could happen tomorrow -- anything could happen.

"There could be a lot of goals, a lot of excitement and there will be a lot of good football, I'm sure of that, so it is all set up -- and hopefully it turns out that way."

Ferguson also spoke of his admiration for Guardiola, 40, as both a player and coach and said he tried to sign him for United when he left Barca as a player a decade ago.

"I spoke to his agent when he left Barcelona and in the end he decided to go to Italy and maybe it was a moment lost because I admired him as a footballer.

"I thought he was a fantastic passer of the ball. The Barcelona team that beat us 4-0 at that time with players like (Jose Maria) Bakero and (Aitor) Beguiristain was superb."

He had equal respect for Guardiola as a coach.

"Since taking over he has changed the way they play and brought maturity to the team.

"From beating us in Rome to the present day, you can see that maturity, and also he has changed the way they press the ball which has been very impressive in the last year or so.

"For a young coach, he has done fantastically well.

"He has a presence about him and he played for Barcelona, which helps of course. If you look at the history of Barcelona's Dutch coaches, he has made a big step forward for Spanish coaches."

However, Ferguson added, he was confident that his team would triumph on Saturday.

"We are not looking for revenge," he said, "but I trust in the players and believe they will do the job."

Reuters

Ferguson expects a Wembley classic

The Manchester United manager said it was impossible to predict what would happen when the two sides meet at Wembley Stadium in a repeat of the 2009 final which Barcelona won 2-0 in Rome.

But he 69-year-old, bidding to join Bob Paisley of Liverpool as the only coach to win Europe's top club competition three times, agreed Saturday's match could be the best final of the decade as he heaped lavish praise on his opposite number Pep Guardiola.

"The success that both teams have had in the last decade has been enormous and it could not just be the final of the decade, but the best final," he said. "The two teams have great histories, that's obvious, but it's an appealing final in what could happen tomorrow - anything could happen.

"There could be a lot of goals, a lot of excitement and there will be a lot of good football, I'm sure of that, so it is all set up, and hopefully it turns out that way."

Ferguson also spoke of his admiration for Guardiola, 40, as both a player and coach and said he tried to sign him for United when he left Barca as a player to join Brescia a decade ago.

"I spoke to his agent when he left Barcelona and in the end he decided to go to Italy and maybe it was a moment lost because I admired him as a footballer.

"I thought he was a fantastic passer of the ball. The Barcelona team that beat us 4-0 at that time with players like (Jose Maria) Bakero and (Txiki) Beguiristain was superb."

Ferguson had equal respect for Guardiola as a coach.

"Since taking over he has changed the way they play and brought maturity to the team.

"From beating us in Rome to the present day, you can see that maturity, and also he has changed the way they press the ball which has been very impressive in the last year or so. For a young coach, he has done fantastically well.

"He has a presence about him and he played for Barcelona, which helps of course. If you look at the history of Barcelona's Dutch coaches, he has made a big step forward for Spanish coaches."

However, Ferguson added, he was confident that his team would triumph on Saturday.

"We are not looking for revenge," he said, "but I trust in the players and believe they will do the job."

Reuters

Vidic warns against Messi obsession

Nemanja Vidic fears Champions League heartbreak for Manchester United if they become obsessed with shacklingLionel Messi in Saturday's final against Barcelona at Wembley.

Vidic captained United to a record 19th English title this month but the Serbian defensive rock knows he is in for one of the toughtest tests of his career against the stardust quality of Pep Guardiola's Spanish champions.

Messi scored in Barca's 2-0 victory over United in the 2009 Champions League final in Rome and has dominated the build-up but Vidic will not have eyes only for the twinkle-toed Argentine goal machine.

"Messi is a great player and is really hard to stop," said Vidic. "But I would not underestimate the other players they have like Xavi and (Andres) Iniesta, they're really good players who can produce good performances in the vital games.

"It is not just about one player. It's about stopping Barcelona as a team."

Vidic remembers only too well the sight of Carles Puyol lifting the Champions League trophy for the Catalans two years ago and says that image is a motivating factor for Wembley.

"Obviously when you get to a final as big as that and lose the game it's not a great feeling," added the former Spartak Moscow player.

"To see the other team celebrate the biggest trophy you can have, it's not a great moment.

"It's sad but we had to say that the better team won that night. Barcelona are a great team and obviously they will have a lot of possession during the game.

"But it is down to us to exploit their weaknesses which all teams have."

United have no injury worries but it remains to be seen whether manager Alex Ferguson opts for a five-man midfield to counter Barcelona's threat or gambles with a second striker.

"The gaffer has some big calls to make because all the players are fit and it will be really hard to choose the first 11," said Vidic.

 Reuters

Adam: I want to stay in Premier League

Charlie Adam has cast doubt over his future at Blackpool by expressing a desire to remain in the Barclays Premier League next season.

The Seasiders lost their fight against the drop when defeat to Manchester United sealed their relegation from the top flight on the final day of the campaign.

Boss Ian Holloway is keen to retain the services of the midfielder, with the club this week confirming they have activated an option for a further 12 months on his contract.

Adam was linked with Liverpool and Tottenham in January and admits he is desperate to play at the highest level possible, while also acknowledging the major role Blackpool has played in his career.

He told Press Association Sport: "My future is that I want to play in the Premier League. I want to play at the top and hopefully the opportunity comes. At the end of the day, my future will get sorted one way or another. It's not me who makes that decision.

"The club have been fantastic with me and since I went there, since day one, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's important that, whatever happens, I will always remember my time at Blackpool."

Giggs misses Manchester United training session

Ryan Giggs missed Manchester United's open training session on Tuesday a day after being named in Parliament as the player at the centre of a high-profile privacy case.

Giggs was pictured on the front pages of national newspapers after he was identified by a member of parliament as the footballer who had gained a High Court injunction preventing allegations of an affair being published.

The 37-year-old Welshman was not the only player missing from training as the English title winners prepared for Saturday's Champions League final against Barcelona at Wembley.

Defender Rafael, midfielder Paul Scholes, goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and striker Dimitar Berbatov also sat out a session watched by around 200 reporters.

Giggs, one of United's most influential players this season as the club sealed a record 19th English title, is expected to be in the starting line-up for Saturday's showdown against the Spanish champions.

In a news conference after the training session, United manager Alex Ferguson deflected questions about Giggs.

"All the players are important, every one of them," Ferguson snapped when one reporter asked how big an influence Giggs was on the team.

Pemberton praises beaten Blades

Sheffield United Academy boss John Pemberton was "immensely proud" of his youngsters after their FA Youth Cup final defeat against Manchester United.

The Blades were beaten 4-1 at Old Trafford on Monday night to lose the two-legged final 6-3 on aggregate.

"There is obvious disappointment following the defeat," Pemberton told the club's official website.

"But I am immensely proud of the lads and the scoreline did not truly reflect the game.

"We were magnificent and I can't praise the players enough.

"The support we received was phenomenal so a big thank you must go to the thousands who travelled across the Pennines."

Champions League - Barca 'may travel early'

Authorities have predicted ash from the Grimsvotn volcano will cover Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern Britain by 0600 GMT on Tuesday but said they did not expect a repeat of last year's travel chaos.

Guardiola said the Barca players and staff would not be taking any chances ahead of the game against Manchester United at Wembley and could bring their trip, planned for Thursday, forward and take a land route rather than fly.

"We need advice from the experts of course," he told a news conference at the Spanish club's Nou Camp stadium.

"Let´s see what they tell us and if they say we shouldn't risk it we'll travel tomorrow or the day after.

"Seeing as the volcano has been asleep for a couple of years I hope it will be asleep for a couple more days."

Barca were forced to travel by bus to Milan for their Champions League semi-final first leg against Inter last season after a different Icelandic volcano erupted and caused air travel gridlock across Europe.

They lost the match 3-1 and went out 3-2 on aggregate after the return leg in Barcelona.

Guardiola said it was out of the question UEFA would postpone Saturday's match, a repeat of the 2009 final in Rome which Barca won 2-0.

He said he was concerned some of the around 20,000 supporters planning to travel to England would have trouble making the trip from the Catalan capital.

"I hope the news tomorrow (Tuesday) will be good because at the end of the day this is a show for the people," the 40-year-old former Barca and Spain player said.

"It would be very sad to be there in a final and have half the stadium empty because people couldn't travel.

"It is important to have people there but I don't think that we could ever delay the final. I hope we can get there but also the fans as it would be pointless to be there without them."

Europe's air traffic control organisation said on Monday if volcanic emissions continued at the same rate the cloud could reach western French and northern Spanish airspace on Thursday.

Reuters

UK lawmaker names soccer star Giggs in privacy row

 MP uses parliament impunity to name Giggs in privacy case

* Move follows legal cat-and-mouse over celebrity gagging

* PM Cameron says situation unsustainable, no simple answer (Adds latest court ruling in paragraphs 7-8)

A British politician defied a court order on Monday by identifying Manchester United's Ryan Giggs as the soccer star fighting a legal battle to prevent newspapers from publishing allegations of an affair.

The release of Giggs' name will be seen as a victory for the media over celebrities and their lawyers after an increasingly farcical game of cat-and-mouse that prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to promise a review of the country's privacy laws.

For weeks, British media have been fighting the growing use by the rich and famous of "super injunctions" -- English court orders which prevent publication of unwelcome stories and prohibit journalists from even reporting that a ban is in place.

A newspaper in Scotland, which has its own legal system, ran a thinly disguised photograph of Giggs on Sunday over an article calling it "unsustainable" to bar reporters from naming the man identified in hundreds of Twitter postings as one of the celebrities using court orders to stifle sex scandals.

"With about 75,000 people having named Ryan Giggs on Twitter, it's obviously impracticable to imprison them all," Liberal Democrat politician John Hemming said in parliament.

Hemming, who has campaigned for press freedom, used parliamentary privilege -- which allows parliamentarians to raise controversial legal issues without fear of prosecution -- to name the player with impunity.

Asserting the independence of the judiciary, the High Court in London later again turned down a request from the Sun newspaper, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, to formally lift the bar on naming the player.

Explaining his decison, senior judge Michael Tugendhat noted the law of privacy was also concerned with intrusion and harassment.

NAMED ON TWITTER

Giggs, a Welsh international, has played for English champions Manchester United for two decades and is one of the best known soccer players in the country.

Aged 37, he is married with two children, and has an image as one of the sport's gentlemen.

Lawyers representing the player had asked U.S.-based Twitter via a London court for information about the users of the messaging website who published details of his private life.

Hemming said this was a step too far.

"If you are going to have an expensive firm of lawyers chasing down ordinary people, with a view to threatening them with a jail sentence because they have gossiped about a footballer, that is fundamentally wrong," he told BBC TV.

English newspapers have responded to bans taken out by a number of celebrities, including other sports stars and actors, by making references to them in gossip columns in the knowledge that readers, having read up on the Internet, will spot the intention behind the apparently innocent stories.

Lawyer Roderick Dadak said the case showed how hard it was to regulate online gossip.

"It has drawn the attention of all, the judiciary and parliament, to the fact that the Internet is pretty much uncontrollable," Dadak of media firm Lewis Silkin told Reuters.

"Anyone can post whatever they want out of the jurisdiction and there is nothing you can do about it," he added.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve announced on Monday that a parliamentary committee would study the issues raised in what has turned into a clash between politicians and the judiciary.

Cameron, in a television interview, said earlier: "It is rather unsustainable, this situation, where newspapers can't print something that everyone else is clearly talking about.

"The danger is that (court) judgments are effectively writing a sort of new law, which is what parliament is meant to do."

Politicians have also used parliamentary privilege to disclose that former Royal Bank of Scotland head Fred Goodwin had won a gagging order. Goodwin came under fire for taking a generous pension after his bank had to be rescued by the state.

Reuters

European Championship U21 - Wilshere, Carroll left out of U21 squad

Manchester City's Micah Richards, Arsenal's Kieran Gibbs, Manchester United's Danny Welbeck and Sunderland's Jordan Henderson are the most experienced names in the 23-man squad, while Ipswich's highly-rated teenager Conor Wickham also makes the cut.

U21 boss Stuart Pearce explained that Carroll was not fit for the tournament while Wilshere had asked to be excused after a gruelling season with the Gunners.

"Andy has been ruled out through injury," said Pearce.

"I spoke to Jack last week and he explained that while he told me in March that he wanted to be part of the squad, he now feels he is not in the best condition to take part in the Finals.

"That is based on the number of games he has played for Arsenal this season, sports science data which Jack was presented with last week and concerns he has for his fitness looking ahead to next season.

"Jack has always expressed his enjoyment at being involved with the Under-21 squad, and while I am disappointed not to have him with us for the Finals I've accepted the situation."

Pearce added: "I am very conscious of the importance of looking after all our players, and that is why I have frequent conversations with club managers throughout the season.

"I believe that representing your country in international development tournaments can be a great advantage to players, and increases the chances of being successful at senior level."

England U21 squad:

GOALKEEPERS: Frankie Fielding (Derby County), Jason Steele (Middlesbrough), Alex McCarthy (Reading)

DEFENDERS: Ryan Bertrand (Chelsea), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jones (Blackburn Rovers), Michael Mancienne (Chelsea), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur)

MIDFIELDERS: Marc Albrighton (Aston Villa), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Jack Cork (Chelsea), Jordan Henderson (Sunderland), Henri Lansbury (Arsenal), Fabrice Muamba (Bolton Wanderers), Jack Rodwell (Everton), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Scott Sinclair (Swansea City)

FORWARDS: Nathan Delfouneso (Aston Villa), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United), Connor Wickham (Ipswich Town)

Eurosport