Hot Mess(i)

The papers are a little more realistic about our game against Chelsea today.

The Guardian goes for understatement, "Blackburn were mostly the beneficiaries of erratic officiating".
The Mail admit we're not lucky:

Certainly the point gained by Tevez near the end at Blackburn on Saturday and the two points stolen from Chelsea by Heskey's injury-time goal at Stamford Bridge last Monday have combined to tip the balance United's way. At this level of the game, the margins really are that fine. But it would be foolish to talk of this as good fortune.

The Times admit we battered them:

Prayers, presumably, were being offered in the mock Tudor mansions of Cobham and Esher, the multimillionaire players of Chelsea reduced to nervous, desperate wrecks as they pleaded for divine intervention. The heroics of Brad Friedel had offered them hope, but, as Manchester United set up camp in the Blackburn Rovers penalty area in the final 15 minutes on Saturday evening, it needed something more. Would United score? As their rivals would grudgingly concede, they always bloody score.

There was an inevitability about United’s equalising goal with two minutes remaining at Ewood Park.

Henry Winter in The Telegraph lauds our performance:

Cristiano Ronaldo's reaction to Carlos Tevez's late equaliser showed exactly why Manchester United make such formidable opponents. As Tevez sprinted away to milk the jubilant reaction of fans who turned the Darwen End into the Stretford End, Ronaldo collected the ball from the net and raced to the centre-spot.

Tevez, newly arrived this season, still learns the United way, that equalisers are not enough, that a team moulded in the hungry image of Sir Alex Ferguson always hunts victory, however satisfying a draw may feel. Ronaldo, far more cognisant of United's tradition for late triumphs, just wanted to get the game re-started. The champions ran out of time, but Ronaldo never ran out of determination, and that is what makes United so special.

This confluence of technical expertise, seen in the dazzling footwork of Ronaldo, Tevez and Wayne Rooney, and passion for victory elevates United to the foremost team in the land for goals, drama, style and silverware. Chelsea make mighty roundheads, Arsenal gloriously flawed cavaliers, but no one quite captures the imagination like Manchester United.

The Independent is a little more restrained, starting their report with the words of Mark Hughes:

The world's greatest player, the manager's greatest squad; there will be plenty of factors to discuss if Manchester United win a title chase which might yet go the final day of the season. But Mark Hughes – boyhood Chelsea fan, a legend for both title contenders and better qualified to discuss the finale than most – provides a more prosaic explanation for United's current greatness.

Applicable to afternoons when it is blowing a gale at Ewood Park and there are only two minutes left to equalise, Hughes describes it as "fear" – of failure, of the analysis which follows it and of what the manager might have to say. (Hughes, remember, is the man who gave "hairdryer" its special place in the footballing lexicon.) Fear is "what drives these top players on," Hughes said on Saturday night.

"The consequences of not getting positive results are there for all to see and certainly at my time at the club if you were beaten or put in a poor performance there were plenty of people who would line up and criticise you. They want to win things; they are in a position where they don't accept they are ever beaten and when they are they don't say they have lost, they say they have run out of time sometimes."

But all in all a fairly reasonable set of reports today.

The most interesting preview of the Barcelona game comes in The Guardian in the shape of an interview with Eidur Gudjohnsen:

"We know that we haven't played well in the league and I understand the fear our fans have, but what I would say to them is that United know how much talent we have and they fear us."

And he also manages to slag of our stadium:

The Icelander does not feel that Barcelona should be concerned about playing the second leg in Manchester. Asked about Old Trafford's billing as the Theatre of Dreams he could not repress a smile, responding: "Yeah, it's very nice, but to call it the Theatre of Dreams ... well, it's a bit of an exaggeration."

What, it isn't literally a theatre of dreams? And there was me thinking it was...
The article also includes a nice round up of Spanish headlines pinning all hope on Messi:

The message from Spain is clear: only Lionel Messi can save Barcelona from defeat against Manchester United. The front page of the Catalan newspaper Sport declared Barça need "Eleven Messis", a sentiment widely shared. Messi, back from injury, immediately improved Barcelona against Espanyol, Marca insisting: "He did more in his first minute than the rest did in the whole game." Another headline read: "Messi makes us dream, the rest just give us nightmares". Meanwhile, El Mundo Deportivo was fretting over the weather. "The forecast is for a storm over Barcelona. Will someone please wrap Messi up? If he catches a cold, it's time for our last rites."

The Mail reports that reports that Sir Alex is retiring are untrue:

"We get this every year," reflected a club official.