Apr 01
Roma v Man Utd: Preview
Four things spring to mind when we talk about a clash with Roma: Foremost in every United fan (and every Roma fan as well, albeit with a hint of dread) would be the 7-1 win at Old Trafford; the second would be the shit United fans had to put up with every time they went to Rome; the third, although to a lesser extent, would be Francesco Totti; and the fourth, especially when we got to hear the draw would have been, ‘Oh no, not again!’
So there we go, in yet another edition of a Roma-United clash; the word ‘clash’, we’d hope is not literal, and something our fans don’t face today.
But before diving into the excitement, let’s get a little United related news out of the way first. It’ll be quick, I assure you.
Rio Ferdinand wants to finish his career at United. I love to hear that! Now, Mr. Gill, please sign him up as soon as possible and get this over with. I’d like to talk a little more about this, but I promised to get the news out of the way soon, and Ahmed has written pretty much everything I wanted to say on this here.
There was an article in the Guardian on Anderson that escaped my attention. It was an interesting read, so here it is. He does come across as a confident bloke — a touch arrogant, but honest.
Meanwhile Daniel Taylor jumps on to the bandwagon of Ronaldo having to prove himself in Europe in order to better Best. On this occasion, it becomes slightly harder to argue with him because he quotes some stats for a change — which is some improvement.
Right. Back to today’s game, Fergie is confident of a good performance while expressing concern over fan trouble marring the proceedings. Meanwhile, Daniele De Rossi reckons United are beatable.
In team news it’s rather mixed, I have to say; EVDS, Giggs and Evra are passed fit, while Carrick is not. From the squad, Nani hasn’t travelled which means he hasn’t recovered from his injury that kept him out of Portugal’s friendly. I hope it’s not very serious and he returns for the weekend.
I think Fergie will start with a more cautious 4-3-3. Anderson, Hargreaves and Scholes will likely form the midfield three. Giggs, Rooney and Ronaldo will line up ahead, and our fab four will form the defensive wall, with EVDS between the sticks. A good team, and I believe Hargreaves would certainly get to start today. Tevez should come on as an impact sub like he did against Lyon. So we’ll have to wait and watch.
I don’t expect a swashbuckling performance from us. However, despite Totti’s absence, Roma will come at us hard and our defence would be tested for certain.
Prediction: 1-0 to United.
Picture via Redcafe
Related items from Red Rants:
- Rooney Out For A Month
- Derby County v Man Utd: Preview
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Roma vs Man Utd: Preview
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
Tags: UEFA Champions' League
Opti (542)
Stephen (499)
RedDevilEddy (462)
Craig Mc (349)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
Great game…well Ronaldo I guess everything was already said. What I like the most is, that even with the odds aginst him in this big games, he still does it. Also did you hear our guys singing both Ronaldo songs…it was unbelievable 4 thousand of them were outsinging Italians. Great job i say
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Better 2nd half, but mostly because Roma were downhearted after Rooney’s goal.
With United’s quality about 2 occasions were enough to convert into a 2 goal lead, and the defense was good, but many of you guys fail to acknowledge the fact that for much of the match Roma did pose genuine threat.
Yes, most United players were very good. But they did win the match as if they were frigging italians, or germans for that matter.
Grognard must be creaming after this performance but i’ll be more reserved.
All in all, United were flawless, but its the defensive approach to the game that bugs me.
Park was nonetheless good on the day. Its just a shame that Fletch’s season is over as for me he was bound to play in this game. Now let’s hope for a quick Vida recovery.
And finally, all those biased Italian journaists will finally vote for Ronnie after his latest masterclass for him to win the World Player of the Year award.
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That was a master class in professionalism and tactical superiority. Applaud Fergie and Queiroz as they prepared the lads well and they all delivered a virtuoso away performance against a great team in hostile territory. Quite simply had Ronaldo put away his last two chances it could have been worse. Roma had a number of half chances and when they did have a true crack at goal, EVDS makes his best reflex save of the season. It wasn’t meant to be for the Italian outfit as they are clearly out classes by United with or without Tootsi (Ooops! I meant Totti). We would have to completely fall apart now not to complete the task at OT. Outstanding team effort and once again kudos and well done to Fergie for outsmarting his Italian opposite number.
RATINGS:
EVDS 7/10 – Actually never really had much to do but when called upon came up aces. His reflex save in the second half is one of the goalkeeping highlights of the season.
BROWN 6/10 – In the first half he was giving up space and allowing both the LFB and LMF to gain space and cause problems. Was more steady in the second half but still was responsible for Roma’s best chances in the game.
RIO 8/10 – Another master class of rock steady defending without having to do anything special. Was always the last bastion of defense when things broke down early and late in the game. Never skipped a beat after losing Vidic.
VIDIC 6/10 – Was fine but never paklyed enough of a game to really make a solid judgment. Hopefully his injury is not great.
EVRA 8/10 – Did a fine job defensively and made some great passes and counter attacking runs that caused trouble.
PARK 7/10 – Played a big part in the second goal and was strong on the ball while causing Roma fits with his running and tracking.
CARRICK 7/10 – Like Saturday, he was steady if unspectacular. His passing was safe and focused as well, he did make a few attacking forays
which almost led to goals.
SCHOLES 6/10 – Yes Scholsey mad a great little cross to Ronaldo for the first goal but he seemed a little slow today and he gave the ball away far too many times. Fortunately he was not punished for it but he didn’y have a great day. Still, he does have a calming effect on the team.
ANDERSON 6/10 – Why this boy is starting over Hargo and or Giggs mystifies me. He was out of his league today and he looked lost. As he did not commit any errors of note I cannot give him a lower rating but he did seem totally invisible out there.
RONALDO 8/10 – Sure he was a little more composed and contained but he caused nightmares for Roma and therefore they were forced out of their game and had to foul him at every chance they found. His goal was fantastic and he was unlucky not to have potted a hat tricks he hit the post and missed scoring a cracker near the end. I guess one can say he does come up big in big games even if he isn’t running at full throttle. I am also noticing a tremendous increase in his maturity after he is fouled. He is winning more and more refs approval by his professionalism and good attitude and sportsmanship.
ROONEY 8/10 – Worked his butt off and made some great runs and passes that caused problems. He also tracked back and defended very well. I am elated not that he scored a goal, but that he scored a typical garbage, goal poachers special ala RVN. Sometimes those are more meaningful than a cracker from 20 meters. He is also showing more patience and maturity in his game.
O’SHEA 8/10 – What a great job under extreme pressure for Big John. Came in and did a fantastic job covering for the loss of Vidic. If he had played the whole game he would have been my man of the match. As is, he just misses out.
HARGREAVES 7/10 – The team totally took over and controlled the game and possession after Hargo showed up. He was very good and was always at the right place when needed. Also made some interesting attacking runs that never panned out but not due to his lack of effort.
TEVEZ To little time to judge.
Man of the Match – CRISTIANO RONALDO with honorable mention to RIO FERDINAND and JOHN O’SHEA.
I’m beginning to hum “Back in the USSR” in my head. Must be a good omen.
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I think we should have scored two more goals.We had so many golden oppurtunities to put the game to bed.One more goal and we could have already had one leg in the semi-finals.
Now Roma will go all out at old trafford and i hope we don’t sit back and defend the two goal lead.But we still are favoraites to go through.
Vidics’ injury looks bad.I hope he recovers quickly.We need him badly for the semi-finals if not the second leg quarters.
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Shannon; Do you mean Ronaldo’s heading ability or do you mean his mental maturity????
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Roma belongs to the past already. Only Barcelona stands between United and Moscow now, as long as Vidic’s injury isn’t a serious one.
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Ronaldo is unbelievable.How did he score that goal.Thank goodness the cheats who vote 4 WPOTY don’t have an excuse this time around.Kaka my foot.HARGO SHOULD START in europe til moscow.His intro coincided with confident play in mid.I hope Vida is ok.
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Jay Wire; Those cheats you mention may yet screw Ronaldo over again depending on how well he does at EURO 08 and whether some other star has a tremendous tournament. Winning the Champions League should nail it down for him though.
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Guys, match report just went up. Grognard, could you put the player ratings over there in the comments as well?
Ah, it’s good to win in Europe – should we go nuts like Arsenal because we beat the #2 team away in Italy instead of a team struggling to qualify for the Champions League?
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Jay Wire and Grognard – you’ve both got great insight a lot of people miss. Hargreaves did indeed make an immense difference to our midfield. Roma were giving us a hammering down the left after halftime, with their fullback flying continuously down the wing and getting dangerous crosses in every time. When Hargo came on, he plugged that gap where before we had been close to sinking life the bismark!. And he took the game to them up our right side and was stopping their play now down that side. He should be playing in Europe, because although Anderson is good, he does not have the experience and effectiveness in Europe that Hargo has. That’s all. But well done the reds.
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Brilliant away performance in Europe! That’s how to get the job done!
Grognard, I would give Rio a 9 or even a 9.5 out of 10. He was simply immense tonight, especially given Vida’s enforced withdrawal. His reading of the game was immaculate and consequently Roma were restricted to half chances as you said. Time and time again he made crucial interventions and I reckon he was the MoM, shading Ronaldo.
Ronaldo took his goal extremely well though, and Rooney looks like he is going to go on one of those goalscoring runs which are his specialty, so it bodes pretty well for the remaining few weeks of the season indeed….
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[craig mc] Hargo also did well because Roma was dispirited after the second goal.
Hey don’t any of you guys think we rode our luck a bit?
WE all know that Roma don’t have a true striker or proper goalscorer. I would have not expected that kind of finishing if we let Barca play their game against us.
Yes, I’m fickle.
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NicoQB; At this stage of the year I would rate Roma a better outfit than Barcelona even without Totti. They just don’t match up well with us the same way we for whatever inexplicable reason have problems against West Ham. And I would take Roma’s striker Vucinic any day. He is a big secret because of Totti but he is an outstanding young striker.
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NicoQB – I don’t know whether that is the case or not mate!. All I know is, that Hargo should have been on from the start, because Anderson (although he is a great fave with many of you, ) was very ineffective in this game. And dare I say this without getting jumped on by Anderson fans, I think he has gone a little off the boil in a few matches recently. He is also a NOVICE in Europe and it shows!. Hargo is experienced and it also shows.
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Craig; I totally agree with you. Right now I wouldn’t even use Anderson as a sub because his game has lost direction and there seems to be no more vision or confidence left in the lad. Hargo should be playing every game and if not in midfield, then at RB. Too me he looks like he is no longer bothered by his knee tendinitis. Play him more at RB and I think it will open Fergie’s eyes to the fact that the money that will go to either Lahm or Bosingwa can go to another striker and a backup at RW for Ronaldo.
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(Grognard) Maturity.
Laptop blanked out while i was texting.
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Ronaldo has been a fantastic header of the ball ever since i can remember.
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Ronaldo is a fantastic header of the ball and what makes him great besides the great height he reaches and the contact he makes is the instinct to go to the right space in the box to receive a ball. That is something you cannot teach and only players with a goal poacher’s instinct have. He’s special.
Shannon; Yes he has matured a lot and it shows especially when he doesn’t get his way. In the past he not only would begin to pout but it would affect his game. Now he seems focused and zeroed in on the the primary goal, to use an obvious pun.
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