Manchester United 1 Lyon 0
Manchester United 1 (Ronaldo 41) Lyon 0
That boy Ronaldo, he scored again. For the 30th time this season, to be precise. It was enough to make the last 10 minutes a little tense instead of unbearably unwatchable.
Shortly before half time, Wes Brown put in an excellent cross, from which Anderson’s cross was blocked but Ronaldo pounced on the loose ball, make space and finished far too hard for Coupet to get to.
This wasn’t the best game there ever was, but this was as much Lyon’s fault as much as United’s. For all the hype of Benzema, Lyon didn’t threaten enough. This was despite Alex Ferguson’s very odd midfield selection of Anderson, Carrick and Fletcher. With Ronaldo and Nani on the wings; this just didn’t work. Anderson, despite not having his best game was the most effective, inventive of the three. Fletcher and Carrick was anonymous for most parts of the game. Ronaldo and Nani, whilst providing pace were too wasteful when in possession. Rooney did sterling work up front but was isolated until Tevez came on. The saving grace was the defence, solid and dependable, all of them.
Lyon ended the game with four strikers but it was telling that United had far more chances to score once Tevez came on. Both Rooney and Ronaldo missed good chances to finish the game, whilst at the other end Leita hit the post with a shot that beat Van Der Sar.
United move onto the quarter finals and a possible meeting with Arsenal who knocked out AC Milan, beating the holders 2-0 in the San Siro.
Image Ronaldo, originally uploaded by chuffy
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March 5th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Your analysis of the game is completely right. Scoring the goal was the only decent think Ronaldo did. The game had the usual tenseness that the team seem to have to provide. They on occasions seem to fail to make the right pass although one pass out to Ronaldo on the right by Anderson I think was very Charltonesque. Still we got though and it is always satisfying to do that when you have not played too well. I did think that Fletcher put himself about a bit and covered the pitch well. I agree that the defence was superb. (again)
March 7th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
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