Manchester United’s task in today’s Champions League final is simple. They have to stop Barcelona playing.If they can do that then there is no reason why they can’t win, if they don’t, then all hell is going to break lose in London.Overall I think it’s going to be a hard one to call, because Barca aren’t likely to come in and steamroll United, and in Alex Ferguson the English side have the best manager in the modern era.Barcelona though have Lionel Messi, and United are going to need to stop him if they are to have any chance. It can be done though; German and Dutch teams have proved in the past that it’s possible.You need a player who can stick to Messi like white on rice, and if you do that, and play the rest of the game as 10 v 10, then you can certainly even things up.United though have their own danger men, and the likes of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs can always win a game for you with a moment of magic. I also think that Ji Sun Park is a largely underrated player, and let’s not forget Wayne Rooney.The one thing I think is that people seem to have written United off, but they got to the final as well, so they have to be good. A lot of people will say that whatever they do won’t work but the game is played on the field, and anything can happen.Gerard Pique and Carlos Puyol will have their hands full with Javier Hernandez and Rooney because they are two small, skilful players and this sometimes is a problem for big defenders.Rio Ferdinand and Vidic will be the busier of the two pairings but if they pick up Messi early in man marking then he shouldn’t be of their concern, their concern should be David Villa and Pedro.The two managers, Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola, will be in the spot light as well for the tactics their teams play.Ferguson is the best manager in the modern time and what he has won and how he gets into his player’s heads is incredible.People think that managing is about going on the field and x’s and o’s, it’s not about that, its about getting your players to respond to the thoughts on the game and playing to the best of their ability.The pitch at Wembley won’t be a factor, there have been grumblings about it in the past but it’s a final, it’s a one off thing, the pitch may be a bit lush, the Wembley from my day was always lush so it shouldn’t be a problem.Also this weekend is the final for the last spot in next year’s Premier League between Swansea City and Reading which should be a decent game.It doesn’t matter to me who goes up, although Reading is closer to London, so I would probably lean with them with West Ham gone down.They have been here before and know what it takes but then again you can’t count out Swansea because they have got to where they are for a reason.