Manchester United won 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico thanks to goals before and after the break by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. The Red Devils take a vital 2-goal lead into the 2nd leg, to be played on Wednesday, 9th April 2008 at Old Trafford. The semi-final beckons, and with it another crack at history.

Highlights (You can read the play-by-play match report here on ManUtd.com):

Cristiano Ronaldo scoring an away goal in a crucial game for Manchester United - showing a resolve that seemed missing in seasons gone past.

Wayne Rooney’s all-round performance, easily the man of the match for his work-rate, creativity and commitment. Ronaldo stole the show with his goal but the rest of the game was more about Rooney.

Vidic’s injury - a knee strain as he landed awkwardly after jumping for a header - will be a cause of concern but hopefully it’s not a long-term injury like last season.

Roma’s wastefulness in front of goal - granted, by the end of the game both teams had their fair share of chances but there were periods of time before both goals that Roma had clear-cut chances to score, and they bottled it. For United to grab those crucial away goals in difficult games - at Lyon and now here at Rome - is a good sign of maturity from their players.

Continue reading “Rooney and Ronaldo punish wasteful Roma to give United 2-0 away win”

As much as it’s tempting to say that it is United’s title to lose, a nagging feeling of attempting to tempt fate, in the process, stops one just short. Arsenal’s come from behind against Bolton keeps them within touching distance and Chelsea today could cut our lead to five. But nothing, or no one, could argue against us being thoroughly deserving of retaining the title at this stage.

Aston Villa are having a torrid time playing us, it would seem, from recent history, and yesterday was no different. Another four-goal rout this season against Villa is sure to set Martin O’Neill counting the number of people he may have wronged in life.

Continue reading “Man Utd 4-0 Aston Villa: Just Six Games to Glory?”

A lot of pages were spent over the past week discussing tactics, formations, players, attitudes, form, referees. All that came to yesterday as the so-called Big Four clashed with the nation holding it’s collective breaths — according to Sky — for the ‘closest title race in history’. I am sure that was a hyperbole, only short-memoried TV blokes would have you think, as I am fairly certain that such a superlative wouldn’t even apply to the history of the Premier League.

But we are here to talk about yesterday’s game, regardless of the flashlights associated with Easter Sunday.

Continue reading “Man Utd 3-0 Liverpool: Threasy Peasy, Innit?”

One thing we ought to have learned yesterday is that Ferguson is a tactical genius (in case anybody ever doubts him anymore). I doubted him. Reading the line-ups before the game, I was shocked: Ferguson was being experimental!

Continue reading “Man Utd 2-0 Bolton: Ronaldo Usurps Best”

This wouldn’t be a full fledged match report like the ones in the past; I couldn’t quite recover from the flu that kept me down, hence the lack of a report on Sunday. I did watch the match though, and since plenty has already been talked about in the comments, I will keep this short.

Continue reading “Few Thoughts on the Derby Win”

The silver lining that came from yesterday was Chelsea getting ousted from the FA Cup. The biggest upset of the day did, in some way, assuage the pain of getting knocked out by the sailor men from Portsmouth. Because, prior to the Chelsea game I was really angry, not especially because of us getting knocked out, but because the Blues would have their easiest passage towards defending their FA Cup crown.

For us though, after being given more than our fair share of draws against Premiership opposition, it had to happen some day. As much as I hate to say it, we were knocked out despite playing football that was many times superior than our opponents.

Continue reading “Man Utd 0-1 Portsmouth: Muntari Penalty Sends Pompey Through”

Was that headline an exaggeration? I didn’t think so. However, yesterday’s win was achieved with minimum fuss, for most part, as a poor Newcastle side was run over by a team that had enough incentive to close the gap on league leaders, Arsenal. Arsenal were surprisingly held to a draw by Birmingham, with a last gap penalty from James McFadden. Although, it must be said that a horrible, horrible injury to Eduardo — something that, I pray, must never happen again to a footballer, ever — would have left the players in a state of shock throughout the game. Players need protection, and that’s what SAF was very concerned about a few weeks ago, bemoaning the fact that Ronaldo gets kicked about for fun and hardly gets much protection.

Back to the match report, though.

Continue reading “Newcastle 1-5 Man Utd: Newcastle Taken To The Cleaners At Home”

As mentioned yesterday, I am not in a position to write a match report, so here is a collection of reports I found on the mainstream media as well as some from our comments yesterday.

Continue reading “Lyon 1-1 Man Utd: Tevez Scores Crucial Goal”

William Gallas talked about United players being too arrogant and a whole load of bollocks, expanding on his thoughts on United’s said arrogance. Well, if yesterday’s display was anything to go by, yes, he was absolutely right. United blew away Arsenal with an arrogance that would be deemed fit for Champions.

Continue reading “Man Utd 4-0 Arsenal: United Swat Le Arse Away”

I really don’t feel like writing a match report. It can’t get any worse can it? City, of all the clubs in the world, win against us; we put on a limp display on a day which was supposed to commemorate a side known for playing one of the most free-flowing forms of the game; and the blue half actually do the double on us this season.

I just can’t think of anything uplifting at the moment either. I could, of course, cite Chelsea’s inability to capitalise on this slip up on our part. Or I could sit and hope Mark Hughes does us a favour today against Arsenal. But that’s really it.

Recently, it has come to my notice that whenever I wrote a match report following a loss, I have invariably praised the opposition and given it due credit for being the better side. At least the last time when we lost to City it was bad luck, more than anything.

But yesterday, I couldn’t see much to say that United deserved anything out of this. I couldn’t even look to chide the Citeh fans, who were well behaved during the one minute silence.

Citeh got what they deserved, and so did we. I don’t want to really go deep analysing things for today because a lot was wrong about our display. I could have talked about Rooney’s and Evra’s absence, but those are excuses. The side we put out should have beaten a Man City side that have been well below par in recent weeks. It was derby day, an occasion to rise up to — enough motivation to win. And they didn’t. Maybe I am being too hard, or maybe it was the occasion that put undue pressure on them.

But they have to rise up to such occasions and not go missing. I am letting my emotions get the better of me here, which is certainly uncharacteristic of me. But I am feeling quite bitter about yesterday and so I will end what has been a rather incoherent post from my side.

See you when I get my spirits higher than this.

Edit: Oh, and the official reason for our defeat: Fatigue due to internationals. And here we are discussing the possibility of a 39th game, not to mention our short jaunt to Saudi Arabia. Oh, the irony!