Manchester United 2 (Ronaldo 54 pen, Hargreaves 72) Arsenal 1 (Adebayor 48)
Owen Hargreaves scored the decisive freekick which gave United the victory over Arsenal, simultaneously ended Arsenal’s season and giving United one hand on the trophy.
This was a game United did not deserve to win, playing very poorly in the first half. Wes Brown’s ability to find an Arsenal player with his passing was matched only by Adebayor’s ability to squander chances in front of goal. The Arsenal striker was the weak link in the team as they should have been 4 goals up. That said, at the other end, Wayne Rooney was denied twice by the foot of Jens Lehman.
How the first half ended goalless I do not know, but it wasn’t long into the second half before the ball was in the net. A well crafted freekick had the United defence on the back football, but even then Ferdinand could have cleared the cross that came in from the left. Later, Ferdinand claimed that he heard the call “keepers” but he should never have left it call or not. Adebayor, deciding that he was too useless to put the ball into the net legally, flicked the ball into the net with his hand. Curiously, none of the United players protested, probably just a bit shocked that they’d let such an easy goal away.
A minute later and it could have been two. Rio Ferdinand shanked a clearance straight towards goal and only a fantastic save from Van Der Saar saved Rio from embarrassment twice in two minutes.
However, Arsenal’s ability to self implode saved the day for United. A ball in by Carrick was going past Gallas’s shoulder, but he foolishly tried to chest it down, mistiming it completely and handling the ball in the area.
The next minute was pure drama, and was probably the key moment of the season. If Ronaldo missed, it would give Arsenal fresh hope and possibly hand the momentum of the title to Chelsea. If he scored, the game would be level and United would have the momentum. Ronaldo stepped up to take the penalty. He started his run up, paused, and then first an Arsenal player ran into the box, followed Park. Ronaldo placed the ball into the net, but the referee called for it to be retaken.
Oddly enough I was really calm at this point, but the important point was that so was Ronaldo. Doing exacty the same as before, he paused in his run up and then put the ball in exactly the same place. Unsaveable. 1-1.
Fergie then gambled and won. He went 4-4-2 and brought on Anderson and Tevez, two bull like fighters who ran and harried the Arsenal defence. Eventually it was another poor clearance from Arsenal that fell to Evra on the edge of the area. He was brought down and United had a freekick.
I think everyone expected Ronaldo to take it, but Hargreaves stepped up and curled it beautifully up and over the wall and down into the bottom corner of the net. 2-1.
There were a few more chances for both teams, but United held on to win and come within two wins of the title.
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