Scholes and Hargreaves recall Barça memories

Two players who know all about facing Barcelona in big games under the lights are Paul Scholes and Owen Hargreaves, who both featured in our famous 1-0 semi-final win over the Catalan giants, on the way to our 2008 Champions League success.

Scholes scored the superb winner that booked our place in the Moscow final that night, as we went onto claim our third European title against Chelsea, via a penalty shootout in the Russian rain.

Xavi, now boss of Spain's league leaders, faced off against the now 48-year-old that night, with the former United playmaker praising the level of talent Barca had at their disposal.

''That midfield: Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, will go down in history, don’t forget [Sergio] Busquets as well,'' began Scholes, reflecting on Barcelona's past.

''He was not bad either but they were probably the best I played against. There were some great teams, you think of Real Madrid, the AC Milan team but Barca were just different and a sensational football team. Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets – what a footballer he is as well.

''You just couldn’t get close to them. It was all about concentration, if you lose it, they can go on and score or they’re away. And you add [Lionel] Messi into that, it was just a brilliant football team. They were the very best – they won the Champions League, league titles, the Euros with the national team and the World Cup.''

Hargreaves, who appeared 39 times for United, played against Barcelona in that vital 2008 semi-final second leg, and managed to keep attacking trio Messi, Samuel Eto'o and Deco all quiet during the encounter.

Performing superbly at right-back under Sir Alex Ferguson that night - and in the first leg too - the BT Sport pundit recalled his memories of the fixtures, stating how our legendary boss often chose him to do a job there in some of our biggest European clashes.

''I often played right-back in quite big games, just because depending on the personnel and opposition with certain players,'' added Hargreaves.

''As I was quite quick, the manager used to put me there. Scholesy and [Michael] Carrick were on fire playing centre-midfield so I wasn’t going to play there. We had a pretty good frontline too with [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Carlos] Tevez and [Wayne] Rooney. So I played right-back in the two semis.

''To be fair, it was one of the best defensive performances I’ve seen over two legs. They didn’t score. I know we were under pressure but, without the ball, Scholesy will remember we did a session under Carlos Queiroz.

''As good as Barcelona were, they weren’t all that quick, those players. They’d do these triangles and go around the corner so we kept the shape and [were told] not to dive in but sit tight. I don’t think many of the lads enjoyed it, it was so boring, but when it gets you to the Champions League final, it’s a beautiful thing.''

Scholes said of his wonder strike: "It was a miskick but I wouldn’t say it was my shin. It was the outside of my foot and the best miskick I’ve ever done anyway."

Hargreaves also went onto praise his pal's sheer talent of striking the ball from range, reflecting on his former United team-mate's winning goal: ''I mean to be right behind it, when Scholesy got it, if that’s considered a miscue, God knows, because that was Scholesy, he had that in the bag.

''The control, the fade to just go right. The margins were so fine at that level. In the first game, we could have won but it was tight.

''So when the goal goes in, especially defensively, with Edwin [van der Sar], Rio [Ferdinand], Wes [Brown] played, we were quite comfortable in how the game went over two legs. So that goal kind of changed everything.''