Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has revealed how his tactics had Manchester United chasing shadows.
With so much pre-match hype focused on United fullback Patrice Evra's clash with Lionel Messi, Guardiola admitted after the 2-0 win: "I saw in last year's matches that Leo had problems with Patrice Evra so I decided to play him in the middle.
"It took him away from Evra, gave us an extra midfielder along with Iniesta and Xavi and helped us in attack."
United striker Wayne Rooney admitted: "It's disappointing, but I thought Barcelona were the better team tonight and deserved to win.
"They scored a good goal early on and Messi's was a great goal at a difficult time for us."