The age of permanent football

I don't remember when I was last so tense for so long at a game of football. Probably there's no last time that I was. After Paul Scholes's magnificent goal in the 14th minute (and here), Barcelona's passing was - as in the first leg - so impressive and so relentless you felt they had to score. The last few minutes of the game were agonizing. The crowd at Old Trafford were on their feet willing the team on, not to concede the goal that would have sunk us. Morris said that he'd aged a few years, and I agreed with him: I'd aged a few years.

Louise Taylor has an unusual angle on these events. She finds an unlikely historical connection between Fergie and United, on the one hand, and Moscow, on the other - via the figure of Leon Trotsky. Mind you, unless she's got mixed up with her sentence construction, she seems to be anticipating an ice pick for United in the final on May 21st.