United On Fire

Despite the scoreline and the ending of the 12 game winning run at Old Trafford this was a pretty resonable result and display from United.

It was quite a modified side that took the field with Nani and Park on the wings, Jonny Evans and Gary Neville coming back in as captain and right-back.  Park and Nani looked bright and inventive in the opening third of the game, with Nani showing great skill but not quite finding the final ball.  Park was showing his usual enthusiastic play and could, no should, have got two penalties in the first half.  He had his foot stood on which the ref ignored, and then was brought down when the player got non of the ball.  The ref even gave a goalkick so he knew that the Villareal player hadn’t got a touch.

Hargreaves was back from injury and put in a wonderful corner.  Shame it was Rio Ferdinand on the end of it.  The keeper flapped and missed and Rio, showing the preditory instinct of a brontosaurus only managed to connect with his heel and send the ball back across the goal instead of into the net.

Whilst we showed much promise and good play in the first half, we did not kick on in the second and Villareal got back into the game.  With their one true, flowing move they cut open the United team but Guille Franco tried a fancy flick to score and put the shot onto the post.

This woke United up and in response, Christiano Ronaldo made his return to the team, much to the delight of the crowd.   Whilst not completely match fit, he did lift the side and United create two futher great chances to win the match.  Firstly Rooney put in Tevez for a great chance, but it was saved off the line.  Then, Ronaldo crossed and Jonny Evans managed to hit the post with a header.  The game eventually petered out and finished 0-0.

On another day, the ref would have give one of the two penalties and we’d have taken one of the two great chances and the game would have been a 2-1 win.  Fergie must now ponder on what can change his fortune against Chelsea on Sunday.

Popularity: 25% [?]