What's a boy supposed to do?

I am a bit confused this morning having just read the reports of the game last night. Nearly all of them suggest Messi had an amazing game - a far better game than Ronaldo say most. This from The Sun is typical:

In this finely-balanced semi-final, Barca completely dominated proceedings and for an hour their inspirational 20-year-old star Lionel Messi ran the show, eclipsing Ronaldo.

In passing, isn't the combination of "finely-balanced" and "Barca dominated proceedings" in the same sentence a contradiction? But anyway - yes, Messi had a good game, showed a few nice touches, but, as is so often the case in criticisms of Ronaldo, where was the end product? Ronaldo had a good game - very involved in the first half and second half our passing on the counter broke down far too often for Ronaldo to get enough of it to hurt Barcelona. Yes, he missed a penalty, missed it because of overconfidence if anything, not because he bottled it on the big occasion.

Ronaldo's response after the game (given here in The Mail) is brilliant:

"I did not change my style of taking the penalty. I have scored in that corner before this season. Now I will score next week in Manchester.

"I don't understand why the referee did not give me the second penalty but it won't matter."

Such beautiful confidence.

This report in The Guardian gives Ronaldo his due:

Ronaldo, desperate to atone for his failure, shone a light on the Barcelona flaws intermittently and Rafael Marquez will not be taking part in the second leg after a caution for fouling him. The Mexican, for that matter, had already made a challenge on the same player that could well have brought a second penalty.

David Pleat praises our defending:

no one could doubt United's endeavour. Park and Rooney stuck to their roles with honesty, the latter the embodiment of "club before self" before being subbed for Nani. The watching world will have been disappointed but, in containing Barça's easy-on-the-eye build-up, the visitors' job was done.

Sam Wallace in The Independent is on similar ground:

This season United have travelled England and Europe breaking down obstinate defences and five-man midfields. Last night it was their turn to spoil and thwart, and they did it beautifully.

and instead of praising Ronaldo's effort, gives this equivication:

Despite Ferguson's attempts to build up Ronaldo's contribution after his penalty miss this was not his finest night, although it could have been little fun taking the fight to Barcelona's back four alone.

Matt Dickinson in The Times was, it turns out, watching a completely different game to the rest of the world, so I won't bother with it.

Tony Cascarino in the same paper is so much better:

Ferguson’s selection and tactics suggested he was well aware of Barcelona’s strengths and he countered them effectively. He stuck Park and Rooney on the wings to counter the threat of Barcelona’s attacking full backs, Gianluca Zambrotta and Eric Abidal.

I'll just quote a few choice bits from the consistently excellent Henry Winter in The Telegraph, who singles out Scholes for praise:

After all the talk of the twinkling feet of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Lionel Messi, it was a man who loathes the limelight, Paul Scholes, who stole the show here in this magnificent Catalan theatre last night.
United's discipline was impressive, tactically and temperamentally, with Scholes embodying their all-round excellence. They could have returned home with an away goal, but Ronaldo showed rare profligacy with an early penalty.
For all his irritation at not converting, Ronaldo executed a superb tactical assignment for the team. Repeating his role from Rome, he again started as an out-and-out centre-forward, this time supported by Carlos Tevez in a 4-4-1-1 formation Ferguson occasionally uses on foreign fields.

Great summing up on Ronaldo- he, like Rooney, played for the team in the way the manager wanted - to paraphrase the guy above, it can have been little fun taking the fight to Barcelona's back four alone, but he did it superbly.