Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s public challenge to Patrice Evra before the first leg at Camp Nou remains a defining example of targeted man-management. Evra says Ferguson addressed the squad and placed the burden squarely on him: \u201cFerguson,\u201d Evra recalled in an interview with The Telegraph, \u201cin front of everyone, started the meeting like this, \u2018Oh guys, today it\u2019s an important game and if we lose it\u2019s because of Patrice.\u2019 We looked at each other and I was thinking, \u2018O.K. this is a lot of pressure.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cFerguson said: \u2018Patrice, I don\u2019t care about Messi being the best football player in the world, whatever. If we lose\u2014if we don\u2019t keep Messi quiet\u2014I am going to blame you.\u2019 \u201d That barb, Evra says, did not break him. \u201cHe knew me and he knew how to manage me.\u201d<\/p>\n
United ground out a 0-0 draw in Barcelona, a result that set the platform for a 1-0 win at Old Trafford and, ultimately, a victory over Chelsea in the final. Rio Ferdinand rushed to congratulate Evra at the final whistle and Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard conceded the first leg: \u201cIt was a very even match. United were very well organised in defence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messi, still only 20 and yet to win his first Ballon d\u2019Or, rarely had completely quiet evenings, and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s view underscored the difficulty: \u201cWhen Messi has the ball, one-on-one, you are dead. That\u2019s why I never liked the individual, man-to-man [marking] against Messi. You have to create a cage.\u201d Ferguson entrusted Evra to mark Messi one-on-one and the French fullback delivered a disciplined defensive display.<\/p>\n
Evra\u2019s mindset was formed by his upbringing and a desire for perfection. \u201cI never wanted Alex Ferguson to say, \u2018Well done, you played a good game,\u2019\u201d he reflected. \u201cI wanted Alex Ferguson to kill me and say, \u2018You missed that f—— pass.\u2019 Because I wanted to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evra faced Messi five times, lost three Champions League finals in his career and also matched up against Cristiano Ronaldo. His most frequent opponent was James Milner, whom he played 21 times: Games 21, Wins 8, Draws 6, Losses 7, Evra Goals Scored 0. On Milner he said, \u201cHe frustrated me with his work ethic,\u201d and added, \u201cI said to him once, \u2018James, are you going to follow me even if I go to the toilet?\u2019 I am not surprised he is still playing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ferguson’s dressing-room barb at Camp Nou motivated Evra to silence Messi and secure a draw in 2008<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083],"tags":[1064,1047,1474],"class_list":["post-6888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-champions-league","tag-patrice-evra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}