Sporting v Man Utd (Estádio José Alvalade, Wednesday, 19 September 1945 BST)
Champions League time and if United and Arsenal play like Liverpool and Chelsea last night, settle back for a mid evening kip. Chelsea had a laughably low attendance of 24,000 and whenever the camera settled over one of the fans, they invariably were on their mobile to keep themselves awake. Only Roman seemed interested, but he had the look of someone who had queued up for a day to get one of those ridiculously expensive Apple iPhones, got it home, looked at it and realised he’d wasted rather a lot of money for something that he thought would excite him but didn’t. And the Liverpool game was worse, but at least 1-1 away to Porto is a good result.
Enough of other teams, what are United going to do tonight? Once again the group stages, the away form will be key. Get a win tonight and we are half way to the next stage. A draw will be a good result overall, considering our league form.
No Hargreaves, which must particularly annoy Fergie because away matches in Europe were what he was specifically signed for. I expect Nani and Ronaldo to start, being both ex-players of Sporting. Have a read of this excellent interview with a fan from Sporting on James’s blog. They look like they will get a good reception.
From what Fergie has been saying it looks like both Saha and Rooney on the bench and Tevez up front on his own. Seen as Evra will have to go back to left-back, Nani will go on the left and Giggs will play in the middle with Scholes and Carrick in the holding role. I think O’Shea or Fletcher would have started this game had they not been injured. So, is the deal that when we get some of forwards back, our midfield becomes knackered?
Looks like Fergie doesn’t like the ref we’ve got, (and I don’t think much of him either) but is thinking historically on the 50th anniversary of Munich, whilst Bobby Charlton wonders if United would be trying for their 4th European Cup if it hadn’t been for Munich. From what I’ve read and heard about the Busby Babes, I’d wonder if it wouldn’t be the 5th or 6th Cup we’d be going for.
To end on a nice note, how good was it to hear of the Leicester City “giving” Nottingham Forest a goal in their replayed Carling Cup match? Basically Forest were 1-0 up when the game was abandoned because Clive Clarke suffered a heart attack at half-time. Leicester allowed the Forest goalkeeper to score straight from the kickoff so the game started 1-0 to Forest. And Leicester won 3-2 in the end so it didn’t even affect the result.
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well after watching the game with major anticipation, I can say that I am proud of Ronaldo scoring against his old club. I am only sorry that Nani couldn’t make it 2-0. I think that we were playing way too sluggish and reserved. One of the commentators really said it best when he remarked that “It doesn’t like these teams are playing to win; it looks that they are just playing not to lose”. We looked really boring out there (minus a few sparks from Rooney, Ronny, and Vidic) and I think we have to play more aggressively out there if we wanna do well in and/or out of CL play this season. Just my $.02.
I’d agree with the “playing not to lose” comment as I think that is what Fergie tells United to do away in Europe. I wish it wasn’t true.
Expect a more blood and guts type game on Sunday for Chelsea. Should be interesting.