Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona coach, has risked a backlash from Cristiano Ronaldo by claiming that the Manchester United forward will be held responsible if his team fail to reach the Champions League final after his missed penalty in the first leg.

“Psychologically, things can be important for us,” Rijkaard said last night on his arrival in Manchester. “If we go through, they [United] will talk about the missed penalty in Barcelona. The pressure is on Ronaldo because he wants to make something good. We are here to do everything to progress to the final, so it will be interesting for some players of Manchester, I agree.”

Pressure, though, could hardly be said to be unique to the United camp. Since their seventh La Liga defeat of the season on Saturday, 2-0 away to Deportivo La Coruña, Barcelona's players have been accused in the Catalan press of lacking passion and pride. This being Spain, the critics will turn to cheerleaders if their team win this evening. Gianluca Zambrotta, the full back, suggested that “things will calm down” if they reach the final, but he acknowledged that the reverse will apply if they are eliminated.

Such is the situation at his club that Rijkaard was unaware of the fallout from United's defeat by Chelsea on Saturday. Asked by an English journalist whether the post-match fracas at Stamford Bridge showed that United were feeling the pressure, Rijkaard said: “What fight? That is news to me. Which players were involved? During the warm-down? Why? Why? Why?”

If he had thought about it a little more, Rijkaard might have returned to the idea that United were feeling the pressure. In the event, though, it seemed he was more than preoccupied by his own team's difficulties.