Spanish sides have ever been the top soccer brands in world soccer especially Real Madrid and Barcelona who enjoy the biggest share of fans following from around the world and their supremacy is as well accepted by English sides – which is uncommon to see these days. Anyways, Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney is known for his honest opinion about anything he likes the most and Barcelona is of course one of the side he has ever been fond of. Both ManU and Barca played a friendly at Santa Clara on Saturday and Rooney took the opportunity to exhaust his fond for the Red Devils. He praised the side for its treble last season and says there is no doubt Blaugrana are the finest soccer club in the world. He although did not accept that they are doing magic only now, in fact, he said Barca has ever been a threatening opponent for any side in world soccer today. Experts are calling Camp Nou side’s current rule a result of Luis Enrique’s improvised field spread while there are many who are still fond of Pep Guardiola’s management when Barca used to be the master of holding the ball and pressuring its opponents.
Talking about his favorite side, 29-year-old Three Lions captain said, “Barcelona are a fantastic team and, after Real Madrid winning the Champions League, they wouldn’t have liked that and they’ve come out again and been incredible really, probably as good as they have been over the last 10 years, I believe.” He added about Barca’s improved play style and said, “It’s a different way of playing — they’re defending a little bit deeper and not going and closing down teams the way they did and they’re hurting teams on the counter-attack.
“You can see there’s a change in the way they play but, with the players they have got, obviously Messi, Neymar and Suarez, they are a massive threat to anyone.”
He also talked about last Championship league when Red Devils were not playing and said, “I think as a player, and hopefully one day going into coaching, then you’re always trying to pick up things, what teams are doing and, especially as you get a little bit older, you are trying to see how different teams are playing the game and how you feel you could counteract that. It’s a different way of watching football and learning from it.
“You’re so close to winning it and to lose twice to Barcelona is hard to take really,” he said recalling 2009 and 2011 Champions league finals. “I think you sometimes have to hold your hands up and say they were the better team — the best team in Europe — and it was going to be difficult for us to win the game. I’d say probably the game at Wembley, being there, it would have been nice to have won the Champions League there.”