Messi demands more glory for Spanish masters

The revered Catalans earned Guardiola, pictured inset, his second Champions League win – a 10th trophy in his first three years as a top-flight coach – and effectively sealed Barca’s place as one of the game’s finest.

Messi, who characteristically scored Barca’s second with an excellent opportunist strike in the second half, has now won the European Cup three times. But the Argentinian, still just 23, wants more.

“This team is incredible,” he said. “I think today we can’t really fully appreciate what we’re doing, what we are achieving.

“We want to keep winning trophies – and we can keep going further and further.”

Even the modest Messi had to acknowledge the gulf in class.

“We were superior against Manchester and deserved the win,” he said. “It is another cup for us and I managed to score a goal again. I saw a bit of space there, the goalkeeper came out a bit and luckily it went in.

“Now we’re going on holiday – after taking the cup home to our people – then we will start thinking about what we can achieve next.”

Victory saw Guardiola lift the European Cup as a coach 19 years after winning Barca’s first as a player at Wembley.

It came, too, against the side Barca edged in Rome two years ago when the Catalans’ class prevailed in a 2-0 win over Sir Alex Ferguson’s United.

This time, victory was even more comprehensive.

Pedro, the most under-rated of Barca’s illustrious line-up, gave his side a deserved lead when he coolly buried Xavi’s incisive pass.

United, who had started brightly, recovered well and went in at the break level following Wayne Rooney’s well-worked equaliser.

But Barca’s spirit and class told after the break as United struggled to keep answering questions posed by their opponents’ dominance of the ball.

Guardiola’s side, so often accused of trying to walk the ball in, won it with two uncharacteristic strikes.

First, Messi received a square pass from Andres Iniesta, carried it forward casually and, looking up, skidded the ball past Edwin van der Sar with deceptive power.

Barca were not done, however, and wrapped it up with a deserved third when David Villa, pictured inset, curled home a beautiful shot to really kick-start the victory celebrations. United must go away and think up new ways of stopping Barcelona.