The defeat which resulted in the best team in history

"We are not so bad," said Joan Laporta in the days leading up to the Champions League semi-final against Manchester United. With La Liga completely out of their reach and Barca knocked out of the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, Barca still had the Champions League to save the season. But the period with Ronaldinho, Rijkaard and Deco was coming to its end and few managed to see it coming.

Therefore, the clash against Manchester United in the semi-finals of the Champions League in the 2007/08 season was like a final for the men from Barcelona. With Ronaldinho first punished and then sent away from the squad, Barca were relying heavily on Eto'o, Henry and Messi, who was in the early stages of his career after breaking onto the scene two years earlier.

The first leg, at the Camp Nou, could not separate the two sides. Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty for the visitors which could have been decisive and neither team was capable of breaking the other one down.

The return game at Old Trafford, brought about the most abrupt end to a Barcelona generation. The Spanish side fell behind to a shot from outside the area by Paul Scholes and they were not capable of scoring the away goal which would have sent them through. Shortly afterwards, they would give Real Madrid a guard of honour in the league and that golden generation had come to a close.

It was that defeat against United, disappointing despite the sparks of brilliance by Messi, which led Joan Laporta to carry out major changes to the squad. The president, the saviour five years earlier, was on the ropes after two awful years both in the league and in Europe.

After receiving Cruyff's advice, Laporta went for Guardiola and the coach got rid of Ronaldinho as well as almost forcing out Eto'o, the team's great goalscorer that season. In addition, he gave more game time to Messi, who went from 16 goals and 13 assists in 2007-08 to 38 goals and 15 assists in 2008-09.

Although they had a hesistant start, that Barca became unbeatable and ended up with the best season in the history of a great club, with a treble which was converted in a famous six trophy season one year later with the two Super Cups and the Club World Cup. A team which would never have been formed had they not lost that Champions League semi-final. Or at least not as early as it was.