What’s the difference between Barca, MU, Chelsea, Liverpool? — goals

For the first time since 2005, the Champions' League final was won by the team that actually played better on the night.

Because as all football fans know, playing better doesn't guarantee winning and the past four finals either saw very balanced tussles or "injustice" being done.

On that fateful night in Istanbul, Liverpool were torn apart yet managed "six minutes of madness", a phrase immortalised by a stunned Carlo Ancelotti who saw his Milan team fail to put away a 3-0 lead, and then two point-blank chances in extra time, and three penalties in the shootout.

The next year, Arsenal had led despite having their goalkeeper sent off in the 18th minute and defended manfully only to for their defence to collapse in the last quarter of an hour.

Milan had their revenge on Liverpool in 2007, being put to the sword by the Reds but seeing a deflection off the back of Filippo Inzaghi giving them the lead before finishing 2-1 winners.

Last year, an evenly contested match ended up with John Terry being given the chance to win it with the last penalty against Man Utd. But disappointment turned to anguish for Chelsea as their captain slipped as he took the kick, seeing his shot come off the post and then in sudden-death kicks, Nicolas Anelka failed to convert.

It has happened time and again, teams snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It's a point I've been trying to make in this column for the whole season, and has won me the adoring criticism of readers, partly for supposedly finding excuses for a Liverpool team that has failed to capitalise on early season promise, and partly for suggesting that Man Utd were lucky with "timely" rather than "favourable" decisions by referees.

But credit to most Manchester United fans, they have accepted that Barcelona were the better team on the night, even if not accepting the Catalans are the better team fullstop.

After all, if Sir Alex Ferguson could think his team was the better one after being mauled 4-1 by Liverpool, then his conceding that Pep Guardiola's men were better is already a shocking event.

To be fair though, Man Utd could so easily have picked up their fourth European title. For 10 minutes, only one team had showed up, with Cristiano Ronaldo determined to show that he is worthy of the title of world's best player.

But what happened? A goal happened, is what.

And then suddenly it was all Barcelona. There is no scientific way to explain it, but it happens all the time. Team gets a goal and the entire dynamics of the game, or even the entire competition changes.

The goal could and should have been avoided though. Anderson let Andres Iniesta — who Wayne Rooney later called the world's best player — waltz past him, then Nemanja Vidic was bamboozled by a simple cut-in from Samuel Eto'o, who then toe-poked it past Edwin van der Sar at his near post.

Three mistakes. If only one were avoided, the Devils would probably have continued their barnstorming start to the game. Instead, it was a footballing lesson, as Victor Valdez was only really troubled once more in the game, and that came after Lionel Messi had put Barca two ahead, capping a performance that won the overhyped Ronaldo-Messi contest.

On its own, it may seem like a simple truism to say that goals decide games. But often, it has shifted the momentum tremendously even across a 38-game league.

When Liverpool trailed to MU but then had Fernando Torres humiliate Vidic for the equaliser, it shifted the game and, indeed, put the entire title chase back on track. But the same title hunt by the Reds was doused when starlet Federico Macheda scored late goals in consecutive matches to give the Devils one-goal wins.

That same chase ended for good when MU pulled a controversial goal back against Tottenham after going two down.

They say the table doesn't lie, and rightfully, for taking their chances, and winning more games, Man Utd are the champions. But the table also tells us that Liverpool has the best goal difference.

What it tells us is that there is no such thing anymore in football about someone "deserving to win" or not. Someone just wins, fullstop.

If we boil it down to man management, then it's a big salute to Fergie who has rotated his team better than Rafa Benitez has. There is no point smashing teams by four or five goals and then drawing three games in a row like Liverpool have done.

The Man Utd rotation model of putting out a team that can just about grab the one-goal win is certainly what all managers hope they can achieve, given the 60-odd games teams now need to play across the season.

It has been a season where Barca have become champions of Europe by humbling Man Utd, but were said to have been gifted the semifinal against a better Chelsea side who were denied five penalty appeals. It has been a season where Liverpool completely a rare league double over Man Utd.

But in the end, it is Man Utd and Barca who have the important trophies, because they got their goals at the right time. (TMI)