On May 28, 2011, ‘Toño’ Valencia started in the game that Manchester United played against FC Barcelona, in the final of the 2010-2011 Champions League, at Wembley Stadium, London.
That day, Antonio Valencia returned to write a page in the history of our football. The Lago Agrio-born player became the first Ecuadorian to play a Champions League final.
The team led by Alex Ferguson had had a great season in the European tournament. In the group stage, they won four games, tied two and lost none. He finished first in the group over Spanish Valencia, Scottish Rangers and Turkish Bursaspor.
In the round of 16 he beat Olympique de Marseille, in the quarterfinals beat the Chelsea, in the semifinal was imposed on the Schalke 04 and reached the final without losing a single match.
Manchester United had in its ranks several world figures. That was the lineup that day: Edwin van der Sar; Fábio da Silva, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra; Antonio Valencia, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs, Park Ji-Sung; Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernández.
However, on the other side was one of the best teams of all time. Josep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona had a dream squad: Victor Valdes; Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano, Gerard Piqué, Éric Abidal; Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta; David Villa, Pedro Rodríguez and Lionel Messi.
The game was not good for either Manchester United or Antonio Valencia. The Ecuadorian had the difficult task of marking Messi and on many occasions he resorted to a foul to stop the Argentine.
The ‘Toño’ was overcome and due to a foul on the Argentine he received yellow card, at 79 minutes.
The match ended 3 to 1 in favor of Barça with goals from Pedro Rodriguez (27 ′), Lionel Messi (54 ′) and David Villa (70 ′). For the Red Devils discounted Wayne Rooney (3. 4′).
Despite the defeat, Valencia remembers that day as “a dream”, as he recently wrote on his Twitter account. And he said he hopes that another Ecuadorian can return to play a Champions League final.
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