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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Man Utd V Benfica Match review

Good morning to everyone. Do we like to make difficult for ourselves or what? In the end it was a confident performance by a team that showed a real hunger and desire to progress in one of the worlds largest competitions. Well done boys, you just had to do it the hard way!

For those of you who missed the game last night, you missed a cracker. United started with a 5 man midfield, a cautious approach by Fergie and ultimately one that did not pay off! On 27 minutes Benfica had scored, leaving our lads wondering if Benfica were going to be the team that knocked us out yet again.

The goal seemd to rile the squad and you could see the aggression come out in players like Rooney, Neville and Vidic. They were determined to get back into this game and an absolute bombardment was the result. United must have had about 10 shots in 15 minutes as United went in search of an equaliser. It came on the stroke of half time when Vidic drove home a powerful header.

After the break United continued their bitter punishment of the visiting Portuguese. Some will remember how they knocked us out last year and it was time for revenge. Ronaldo did one of his mazy runs down the right flank, placed an inch perfect cross onto the head of Giggs, the outcome? 2-1 to the reds.

With the game apparently wrapped up, Fergie opted to bring off Giggs with Saturday in mind. United weren’t finished however. Saha headed home to make it 3-1 and Benfica had all but sealed their Uefa cup fate.

It is certainly true that this team can only play one way and that is attacking. They become agitated and frustrated when they need to sit back, it simply isn’t in their nature and I for one am glad for it. It annoys me when Wenger suggests that his team play the most beautiful football. United last night displayed a range of slick short passing combined with long and ditrect balls, it was a joy to behold. Well done lads, hopefully we can go on from this, I would love to see us get Munich or Barcelona in the next round!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I didnt get to watch the match last night, cos here in South Africa they decided to show the BORING Arsenal game. I was so ticked off. However on a plus side i did get to watch Ricardo Quaresma tear Arsenal apart. And it did get me thinking "WHAT IF" SAF gets him to replace the ageing Giggs?

I did learn of Quaresma a few years back playing Championship Manager and he was in the same class as Ronaldo at Sporting. But he did mess his career up by going to Barca and now he is back in portugal with Porto showing what he really can do.

I really hope SAF has his scouts watch this guy cos i think with him and Ronaldo on the same team, we would tear anyone to shreds.

Chio

Yusuf Maiter
South Africa

marlowe diego said...

sorry you didn't get to see the match yusuf. what a cracker...mainly for the way utd responded to the benfica goal. i haven't seen us play that way for a long time. rio and vidic spent the last 20 mins of the first half in benfica's half of the pitch...rio i think thought he was a midfielder and acted like one too, dinking around the opposition like scholes and carrick.

to be honest though i think we should have had six goals. rooney and ronaldo were guilty of some sloppy work in the box and could really have had a couple each. at times somebody (giggs, ronaldo, evra...) would make a run to the line, cut the ball back but no one was there or had over run the mark. maybe it was just being too eager, and hey, i'm not complaining. we put away three beautiful goals and it's not that easy to play a team with nine men behind the ball (nuno gomes wasn't going to be dragged back into his half that's for sure!).

and i agree with you, agent, bring on barca! imagine larsson scoring the winning goal against them!

roro said...

Great match, no doubt. Shaky start, but as soon as the squad realized thay needed to attack, it became a special match. Great play after Benfica's goal. Exhilirating. Congrats boys!!

If I remember correctly, the year Cristiano Ronaldo came to United, SAF was actually linked with Quaresma in the press. He's a great talent, just didn't see eye to eye with Rijkaard. I think SAF saw Ronaldo's versatility early on, and opted for him instead of Quaresma, who is helplessly right footed, and right sided. He can however, tear defenders apart at will. Very technical, with an end product.

I think he would be a great signing. It would mean Ronaldo would spend more time on the left, but if Quaresma can be 'forced' or 'nurtured' into a left winger, they can both switch sides during a match and drive the opposition crazy.

Let's hope he and Ronaldo are friends, it would definitely ease the transition for a guy who seems to love playing in his country.

Ro

Anonymous said...

Hi Agent

I loaded adobe flash player from the Man United website, however I still cannot see any videos from your website. Any idea what software my PC might need in order for me to view these videos?

Yusuf
SA

Agent said...

Hi there,
If you go onto youtubes website and look at the Help page it should tell you there. I think it runs on Adobe flash, so might be worth checking out their website Here. Please let me know if you are still stuck and I will investigate further. Thanks
Agent

Anonymous said...

Hi Agent

I downloaded Adobe Flash 9, and i am view movies anime movies on one of thier partner websites, however i still cant see any of the videos you post.

Thanks

Yusuf Maiter