Sometimes the fates conspire against you. I had already ducked out of work next week because of Tuesday’s home leg and could not really do the same for the away leg. So instead of soaking up the atmosphere in the Catalan capital I find myself at a Management Centre in Hampshire.

I organise my day around being free at 7.45, and leave the others at dinner. I’ve got the team selection on text, and it’s worrying; Vidic out with a stomach upset, Ji Sung Park in, Scholes and Carrick but no Anderson. I rate Hargreaves as a stand-in right back, and the rest look good until I realise he has moved them all round; Tevez in support, Ronny as striker, Rooney on the wing.

The TV is not on. Is nobody watching the football? “Sky is down. Don’t worry, sir, we can rig up the television in the Arden Suite.” I go there. The place takes ten minutes to find and is deserted. I’m becoming Mr Nasty; I don’t need Sky next week, sunshine, I need it now. I run down to the pub. Nice bar, nice beer. Big telly, no Sky.

Why do they run conferences in the middle of fucking Hampshire? I run back (it’s only a quarter of a mile) and am reduced to sitting in my car listening to Alan Green and Chris Waddle on Five Live over eighty minutes of torture.

From them I get the impression we are utterly awful, that it is a miserable display, that our season is falling apart. I catch the BBC News, which headlines that United are hammered by Barcelona and shows me the missed penalty and a pretty good shot from Thierry Henry which moves all over the place and Van der Sar just manages to knock down.

I go to bed a worried and disappointed man pondering on that glorious 3-3 when Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke played like Puskas and Di Stefano, and on the contrast between this year’s dross and last year’s first leg; the beautiful game at its peak.
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Like many, I was worried all week. The pleasure of Wigan’s late equaliser on Tuesday had been buried in the news of Chelsea’s win at Goodison Park on Thursday. Last year’s 1-0 was the only league win we have enjoyed at Ewood Park since 1998 and this year Blackburn are enjoying their best season for a while. They are also officially the league’s second most dirty side; nobody has collected more red cards. This was never going to be easy.

History will make little of Saturday’s drama. The record will just have a 1-1 draw between Blackburn and United on the way either to Chelsea’s amazing last-ditch theft of the title, or to United’s retention of it. As we all know, that tells only a tiny fragment of the truth and I am afraid there are likely to be another 280-odd minutes of gut-twisting agony before we are out of this one way or the other. It is usually so.

Where he could, Ferguson went for experience in his team selection. Kuszczak played in goal but with the return of Vidic, the defence was back to strength and Scholes and Carrick were in the middle, flanked by Ronaldo and Giggs. Rooney and Tevez were together again up front. As usual this was only Blackburn’s second full house of the season; the reported 8,000 or so United fans were loud and impressive throughout the match. Oh to have been there.

United began well; confident, no real sign of nerves, passing the ball. Yet there were only two clear chances in the first twenty minutes and the first of them fell to Blackburn. Paul Scholes’ attempted clearance led to a chance for Jason Roberts. He was stopped by Kuszczak, whose challenge at first glance looked illegal but in fact the goalkeeper kicked the ball away before the collision and did his best to avoid any unnecessary contact.

The United chance came when Rooney’s great run on the right ended with a peach of a cross for Tevez, who needed to sidefoot it home from a yard or two; he all but missed the ball completely.

The match was transformed when Blackburn scored. From a throw-in on the United right Roberts challenged Vidic and Ferdinand. I don’t think the ball touched Roberts, but somehow it bounced off and between the two defenders and rolled invitingly across the goal where Roque Santa Cruz cracked it in confidently inside the far post from about twelve yards and it was 20 minutes 0-1 and Chelsea fans, Scousers and ABUs were dancing with delight in pubs and bars up and down the country.

United seemed to become nervy; Blackburn harried and worked and tackled hard and sometimes illegally, and delayed at all dead balls. This led to a scrappy forty minutes, either side of the interval. United got nothing from the officials.

In the first half alone there was a catalogue of decisions; a wrong offside decision against Tevez when he was clean through on the half hour; an amazing failure by the linesman to see that the ball was at least a clear foot out of play, which led to a period of sustained Blackburn pressure; and a trip by Reid on Rooney in the corner of the area for which we should have had a penalty (Wayne made it easy for the referee to refuse by deciding to dive and then had one his red mist tantrums; I hope he knows he’ll be sent off if he does that in Barcelona).

Kuszczak palmed over a long distance scorcher from Bentley then, just before half time, Ronaldo produced a beautifully athletic textbook header from Carrick’s corner, which was powerful but too close to Brad Friedel, who saved photogenically.

The bad patch, such as it was, continued after half time. Blackburn had come out to hang on to what they had, which is fair enough. Nani had come on for Giggs but it was a full five minutes before he even got a touch, such was United’s apparent inability to impose themselves.

Physically we were not intimidated. Wes Brown dished out a couple of Blackburn tackles; it’s just that they have five or six players who have to make good the gap in class by playing that way, and we only have one. After an hour, Hughes’ tactics were working, United were going nowhere and the dynamics of the season were such that a second goal out of the blue and our title would be disappearing down the tubes.

When Santa Cruz headed well over in the 66th minute, however, it was their first attempt of the half; they had one more, when Pedersen beat Scholes and Brown too easily and dribbled cleverly down the left only to shoot across the face of the goal.

At the other end United had begun to apply the pressure. Ronaldo picked up a careless Reid clearance and from way outside the area let fly a shot which beat Friedel and hit the far post. But as if bad luck and the referee weren’t enough, as United picked up the tempo Friedel turned in a blinding performance.

United kept playing the football, Blackburn were forced further and further back. Scholes, who had looked vulnerable earlier, was lording the centre of the pitch, Blackburn could hardly get the ball out of their own half. Rooney was taken out by a belly-high boot from Nelson and played on when he might have come off. Bent over and wincing every time he was off the ball, he showed spirit by doing all he could when play got near him, and was heavily involved in the action.

With fifteen minutes to go he set up a great moment from the left, Ronaldo was tackled from behind as he went through but before anybody could get excited about a possible penalty (which it probably wasn’t) Tevez was onto it and his shot was brilliantly reached by Friedel, who then had the wit to twist and fall on the ball as it crept over the line.

O’Shea came on for Brown. Nani put Rooney clean through with a great ball; Friedel pulled off another save. Carrick headed a ball from a left wing corner which Emerton played with his elbow in a crowded area. This was a big decision. What Emerton did was quite deliberate; Styles was either unsighted or blind.

The pressure was unrelenting; we got a free kick which Nani took quickly, Tevez was through but the referee demanded a retake. Nani flighted this one in wickedly and O’Shea got a prod; somehow Friedel, travelling the wrong way, recovered to get something in the way and keep it out. Just when you had resigned yourself to the fact that this was not going to be our day, we got given a corner that should have been a goal kick.

Nani took it from the left, Paul Scholes rose to head it dangerously across the goal and there was Carlos Tevez, a couple of yards from the line jumping backwards and high to get his head to it and the ball was nestling into the corner and fans and players celebrating as if we had done more than win just another week of torture; 88 minutes 1-1. We might have won the match had Styles given the free kick when Tevez was fouled on the way through in added time.

It was a knuckle-grinding cracker of a match and though beforehand we all felt we needed to win, in the cold light of a weekday morning I see it far from being an opportunity lost, but a great performance and a great result. We were playing against luck and, it seemed, the referee, and for the third match in a row we showed the mettle of champions to take the situation by the scruff of the neck and through sheer determination and effort gain what was being denied us.

“They don’t ever accept they’re beaten” Mark Hughes was quoted in The Times “and when they are, they don’t say they’ve lost, they say they ran out of time.” Much as I’d like it to be otherwise, it’s Ferguson that Hughsie is describing, not United. It wasn’t that way before he came and it probably won’t be that way a decade after he’s gone.

But he’s still here; Stamford Bridge here we come. How much more can I take? Miracle of miracles, I’ve got a ticket; it’s so much easier to share the tension than it is to ulcerate alone in front of the television.

Copyright © Paul James

Paul James

It is ridiculous that a man of my age should be losing sleep over football matches, but there you go. Each time the season reaches its climax I become convinced that this title is the one that really matters because it might be our last as our rivals will surely mature or improve, but Fergie keeps coming up with the goods. You feel that as long as he is here and avoids unfortunate relationships with racehorses the inevitable collapse will be staved off.

Yet, despite my fear that a failure to win would herald one of those agonising periods when the title slips out of your grasp and there is not a thing you can do about it except sit with your head in your hands, I was excited about this match rather than afraid and I soaked up the pre-match atmosphere on the Warwick Road. On crucial days like this, it really takes you back.

We had selected Pique to partner Rio in an otherwise full strength defence. I thought this the right choice, but was surprised that Park was picked in favour of Giggs on the flank. The real problem I had was the absence of both Anderson and Tevez, and Rooney playing on his own up front.

To my mind we had destroyed Arsenal in the Cup, and triggered their poor end to the season through out and out attack. For me this was not a day to be cautious; an early goal could destroy them and we have shown we are one of the few teams in Europe who can do this to Arsenal.

Alex Ferguson was awarded the albatross award of manager of the month and Ronaldo was given the player of the month award. Ronnie seldom performs at his best when someone has just given him an award. Still, the match kicked off with the crowd in strong voice, the Spring sun had come out and Arsenal whom everybody agreed had to win to keep their title hopes alive, were clearly up for it. Not so United.

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Neutral observers to a man reported last night’s game as a comfortable stroll for United, but this worrying fan did not see it in that light. I seldom enjoy second legs; there is too much at stake, too much expectation and too great a history of disappointment.

This is stupid because it is a great privilege to support a club which for the moment at least can play at this level; for a hiked-up price (Glazer put the tickets up from £38 to £45) I am watching the best that European club football has to offer; what I should really do is sit back and enjoy.

The first worry was the absence of Vidic. The second was the question mark over Ferdinand. When the second worry was addressed with the announcement that Ferdinand was playing, came the third, unforeseen worry; Ferguson had chosen to play a weak side in a European Cup quarter final.

Pique was Vidic’s replacement. Wes Brown was playing at right back, where he has had a successful season, but Mikael Silvestre was drafted in at left back for his first game since he was injured in September. We picked three midfielders, Carrick, Hargreaves and Anderson, flanked by Giggs and Park, with Tevez as lone striker. Hargreaves played much further forward than you would have expected.

To call that a weak team speaks volumes for the talent that Ferguson has collected at some expense to bolster last year’s core, but that is how it seemed when I first heard it.

United began impressively. It looked as if any personality could slip into any position and the whole machine would work as smoothly as ever. We were producing flowing moves and carving out great chances; Roma had Doni to thank for excellent saves from Hargreaves, Anderson and Giggs; Hargreaves and Park were putting in great balls from the right and Giggs’ through ball for Hargreaves was a dream.

Roma were neat. As you would expect from Italy, they could all find each other with the ball and there was some trickery on show. They plugged away intelligently and cleverly to try to nick the goal which would change the complexion of the tie. People around me said at the end that they didn’t really have a go, yet their strategy looked sound and very nearly produced dividends.

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The climax to the season looms, the tension notches up. In a rip-roaring, helter-skelter match on Sunday, United and Middlesbrough shared four goals. United were unlucky, denied the clearest of penalties at a crucial moment and unrewarded for much command. Yet it was a cracking match we could so easily have lost.

Ferguson played O’Shea in the middle alongside Ferdinand to cover for the missing Serbian. Otherwise we fielded our strongest side. Middlesbrough were giving a second start to the most expensive acquisition in their history, the Brazilian striker Alfonso Alves who had hit the woodwork twice last week at Stamford Bridge.

Unsuccessful in the away ticket ballot as usual I watched from a South London under a couple of inches of snow while the match on the North East coast started in the sunshine of a brilliant spring day. Probably safe from relegation now, Boro’ played some fast, adventurous football in their quest to win the unofficial North East mini-league which is achieved by ending up in fifteenth place. The result was an open, attacking game played to the background of impressively vocal United support.

Alves established himself as a handful from the start but the early match was defined when Arca clattered Carrick about thirty yards out. The recipient of vocal abuse every time he touched the ball and the object of a clever banner alleging he dives (the cheek of it!), Ronaldo clearly meant business. His kick was ferocious and goalbound until one of the leaping defenders was unwise enough to get a head to it.

Giggs took the corner from the right and Ronaldo went for the header; he took Boateng out of the equation but the ball grazed his crown and landed with Carrick wide left. Carrick beat his man and picked out Ronnie. There were ten defenders in the area but Ronnie could find space in the Black Hole of Calcutta; he surreptitiously drifted off his marker and cracked it in from eight yards. The commentator called it a tap-in but it was a good deal harder than I can kick a ball; 9 minutes 1-0.

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It is dangerous when commentators describe our draw as easy; first because of the English Sporting Press’ penchant for underestimating foreigners and second because players who read the papers might start believing it. Roma have not faltered in any home fixture since we took a point off them before Christmas; their only defeat in the champions League was 0-1 to us. The first target for United was to score, and the second to avoid an irredeemable defeat.

With Van der Sar thankfully fit again Ferguson started with the full defence. He played with three central midfielders, the Scholes Carrick combination which many (including me) used to say could not play together well, backed by Anderson and, it seemed, with Park and Ronaldo on the flanks and Rooney as a lone striker. In fact, Rooney played wide left with Ronaldo much more central.

Roma are unlike other Italian sides; they operate a fluid attack of the kind which McLaren thinks we have copied and improved upon, and they can be exciting in the English style. I have admiration for their football but it is difficult to like their fans much. It was a relief that the scenes which accompanied the last two United visits were not repeated; there was, apparently, some missile-throwing, but there were no baton charges in the ground or in the streets, and as far as I know no further cases of potential miscarriage of justice.

The full build-up in the stadium (which was not covered on ITV but was on MUTV, who took the ITV pictures and avoided advertisements) looked impressive. Romans do not, it seems, do group stage matches since the crowd was over 50,000 bigger than for the December game. When they turn up, they can be impressive, and though it is stereotypical and un-PC to suggest that the Roman anthem with the smoke and the flags had overtones of a fascist rally, it did (though no more than your average visit to Elland Road).

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Ronaldinho is set to miss Barca’s potential Champions  League tie with United.

United beat Roma 2-0 away from home while Barca managed a 1-0 win over Schalke. But Ronnie has been ruled out for six weeks due to a thigh injury.

]]> http://www.manutd24.com/rivals-watch/ronaldinho-out-of-possible-united-battle/feed/ http://www.manutd24.com/match-zone/manutd-4-0-aston-villa-poetry-in-the-time-of-the-flood/ http://www.manutd24.com/match-zone/manutd-4-0-aston-villa-poetry-in-the-time-of-the-flood/#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:14:47 +0000 FredRed http://www.manutd24.com/match-zone/manutd-4-0-aston-villa-poetry-in-the-time-of-the-flood/ Paul James

I nearly drove with the roof down on Saturday because it was a lovely sunny spring day when I left after breakfast. By the time I had reached Stafford the first spots of rain were falling. By the time I parked in Rusholme for lunch there was a good old fashioned Manchester drizzle.

By the time I parked at Trafford Bar it was throwing it down; cold and grey and miserable, the puddles in the waste ground turning into ponds, the tyres of the passing buses throwing great waves of oily water. At least Arsenal were losing. By the time I got to the ground I was wet through my coat and my jumper and my tee shirt, and Arsenal had won. I wrung the sleeves of my coat and the water spilt from it as if I had put it in to soak.

How would it be possible to play football on such a day? Villa should have won at Stamford Bridge and The Emirates, surely the prospect of Rome on Tuesday would distract United and the weather would do the rest. And Kuszczak in goal! Oh dear. At least we were starting with Tevez and Rooney back together up front.

Mark Lawrenson and Lou Macari said that what followed was a one-sided lesson in football mastery but what do they know about football? The Sunday Times had it as “a romp past hapless Villa” but it did not look that way to me, especially at the start. Perhaps the tension of the run-in is warping my judgement.

Aston Villa looked a far better team than Liverpool. Fast, skilful on the ball, not a hint of the rough house about them, they set off to play football, gained territory and possession and looked likely to cause us difficulty; three or four early Scholes passes were charged down, Kuszczak looked jittery.

Giggs started brilliantly up the left and Tevez had one of his tiger days; all over the pitch, closing down every Villa player, hunting, harassing, tackling, the back of his shirt after half an hour looking as if he had been playing Rugby League in the days that was a winter sport.

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Paul James

For the first time in United’s history we had a match on Easter Sunday. I do not approve; Easter Day is for other things. The scaremongering weather forecast and the fact that Tom still had my ticket from Wednesday night did little for my peaceful sleep. I had to be up at 5.30 and out into the sub-zero morning to make Easter Mass at Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Just in case I was tempted not to take the trouble, the only time I have ever missed Mass because of a football match we lost 0-1 at home to Liverpool.

My plans went well. The roads are not teeming with activity at six thirty on a freezing Easter morning, there was some fairly serious snow around Oxfordshire and Warwickshire but up the West of the country the sun was shining, there was a beautiful covering of snow on the Pennines, I made breakfast with John at Sandbach and Tom turned up with my ticket with minutes to spare and I was in my seat for kick off.

The atmosphere inside the ground was what you would expect from one of the bitterest rivalries in European football with both clubs in the last eight of the Champions League and on impressive winning runs, and despite the inhospitable timing of the fixture the ground was packed. 76,000, they said. What’s that? Have we stopped bothering to count properly now?

I was relieved the defence was back together again but I am always disappointed to see Tevez on the bench. Nevertheless the decision to play three central midfielders was a sound one and Scholes, Carrick and Anderson were the right choices. Ronaldo and Giggs were on the flanks and Rooney on his own up front. Liverpool also played it with caution, like a big away European match, Torres, lately in devastating form, their lone striker.

Ferguson had picked the First XI, and they blew Liverpool away. We were not hindered by referee Steve Bennett’s decision to send off their most aggressive player after 44 minutes but by then the pattern of the match was clear, and at the end Liverpool were grateful to get off the pitch only three goals down.

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Reds duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney were again the stars of the show as they both grabbed a brace to seal a second emphatic win over the Magpies this season after the last month’s 6-0 drubbing at Old Trafford.

The home side started brightly and didn’t allow United to settle into their pace with Nicky Butt in particular biting into a number of crunching tackles.

It was left to a moment of brilliance from Ronaldo to open up Newcastle as the winger curled in a beautiful ball into the box and Rooney stole a march on Charles N’Zogbia to smash the ball in.

In the absence of Paul Scholes and Anderson, it was left to Michael Carrick to pull the strings for United and it was the midfielder’s through ball which Ronaldo latched onto and slid passed Shay Given to double his side’s lead.

United all but secured the points at the start of the second-half when a misplaced pass from Abdoulaye Faye fell to Ronaldo who again used his pace to drive at the Newcastle goal and score pass replacement keeper Steve Harper.

In the lead up to the match, Newcastle fans talked about the famous 5-0 win they had over United under Kevin Keegan in 1996, but they created very little in this match and though they did get a goal through Faye – it was United who scored five today.

Rooney added his second of the match with a delightful curling effort from the edge of the box. The England man then setup sub Louis Saha to add the fifth goal.