Manchester United vs. Roma 2nd Leg
Both Rooney and Ronaldo on the bench to start.
Ferdinand passed the fitness test and he started alongside Brown, Pique, and Silvestre. Sir Alex went with a Carrick as a defensive mid Anderson and Hargreaves in the center. Park on the right and Giggs on the Left
17 year old Danny Welbeck was called up to the first team.
In the first 10 minutes United had 5 good chances to score. First Hargreaves centered the ball for Tevez in the 3rd minute but its deflected for a corner kick. Then Giggs finds Park making the run behind the Roma defense but Park puts it too wide looking for the far post. Then Park finds Tevez with a center inside the 18, but Tevez heads it wide. Then in the 10th minute Giggs connects with Owen Hargreaves, Owen was through on a 1v1 but couldn’t finish as Doni blocked to much of the angle.
United with another great chance in the 16th Owen Hargreaves sends a ball into Giggs who takes a shot at point blank but Doni dives the right way.
Giggs delivers a great ball to Owen Hargreaves right in front of goal but was immediately rushed by Casseti and Juan. Owen couldn’t get the shot off
Hargreaves again with a ball that makes it all the across the middle, That time for Anderson who connects wonderfully but is denied by Doni. Great shot by Anderson and I’m glad to see he’s keeping the ball down when he shoots
A very greedy and selfish play by Tevez in the 27th minute. There was a counter attack from United which Tevez started, by playing Ryan Giggs to the left, Giggs carried and megged a player before passing it to Anderson who had a light touch for Tevez and immediately took off for the give and go. At this point Giggs had continued his run up the left completely unmarked and Anderson was making the right run. Tevez held WAY to long, and im not sure his last touch was intended as a pass, it looked like wanted to go solo, but Anderson who was offside ran to the ball and was called for it.
In the 30th minute Roma were awarded a PK after Mancini shook Brown and made Brown commit to slide tackling. The referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot.
De Rossi stepped up and with the pressure of an entire country (Roma was the only Italian club left), He couldn’t convert.
United got very lucky.
Again Tevez decided to play himself instead of giving the ball to Park, who would’ve been clean through.
Tevez ran straight into the opposition. His teammates must have been furious.
In the 34th minute United came close to conceding a goal but a bad first touch by De Rossi give United a chance to clear.
Ferdinand was limping around the whole match. Makes you wonder if he will be fit for the weekend.
A good counter from United as Anderson carried the ball a good 30 yards before passing off to Giggs on the left side, Giggs got past his defender but delivered a poor ball.
2nd half
No changes for United, Ferdinand was back on the pitch.
Roma kept taking shots from outside the 18, Van der Sar had some trouble holding on to the ball but none that would cost United a goal.
Silvestre in great form as he deflected a very dangerous shot taken by Roma. And Van der Sar also doing his part as he gets to a very difficult ball taken by Juan from the corner, and this time he holds on to it
And at the other end again Tevez has another greedy moment, he took one to many touches once again. Tevez did not lift his head to look for other teammates on too many occasions. Tevez wanted to do everything on his own.
Ronaldo and Rooney were warming up
Ronaldo is 9 away from breaking Dennis Law’s record of 45 goals in one season. V.Nistelrooy has come the closest to breaking the record with 44 goals in one season.
Bad ball by Anderson in the 62nd minute, he tried for the switch but he had his left defender making the run, why make soccer difficult? Play it simple.
Man Utd have played with composure and confidence. United were knocking the ball back in forth with no worries
Carlos finally gets his goal in the 70th minute, Hargreaves provided the perfect ball for a diving header,
Maybe now he’ll play with his teammates. And as he celebrated he lifted his shirt to reveal “Feliz Cumple Ariel” or Happy Birthday Ariel
That explains a lot, he was determined to score for “Ariel”
73rd minute Perrota takes his frustration on Park, as he deliberately kicked him. It was a late and cowardly tackle and he still gets upset over getting it called against him. Telling park to “get up”
Rooney on for Giggs in the 74th minute, and O’Shea for Carrick.
I found it very interesting Ferdinand was left on.
Gary Neville’s long awaited return would come in the 81st minute and Anderson was the player to come off. Neville has not played a match in over a year with the 1st team.
Gary Neville was immediately given the captains armband.
Park was fed a lovely ball by Wayne Rooney in the 88th, No offside call but Park cant convert its out for a corner kick.
And that was the final whistle.
United through to the Semi-Final against Barcelona.
