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| chichartio scoring his 1st of 2 |
Okay so team news then and it was good news mostly for sir alex as both carrick and their player of the season so far nani were back from injury. The latter had been ruled out for around 3-4 weeks following a reckless challenge from jamie carragher that gashed his leg but he made a miraculous recovery and got back in time for this 1. There were problems at the back though as both rio ferdinand and vidic were out! A 4-4-2 system was employed with van der sar in goal. John o shea, wes brown, smalling and evra(*captain*) in defence. Nani, carrick, scholes and giggs in midfield and rooney and hernandez up front.
Didier deschamp started the same side that did so well against rennes on friday and it was certainly a boost to have star striker gignac back. The frenchman missed the first leg through injury and they missed his presence up front in that match.The regular 4-3-3 system was employed with steve mandanda(*captain*) in goal. Rod fanni, diawara, heinze and taiwo in defence. Lucho gonzales, m'bia and cheyrou across the midfield and remy, gignac and ayew up front!
The hosts must've been instructed before the game to go all out against the french team and that is exactly what they did with a very good quick start to the game that led to the opening goal in the first 5 min.
Following a united corner, the ball was cleared out but straight to red shirts and it dropped to rooney, and the no.10 volleyed it out to giggs superbly who had space on the left. Rooney then made up a lot of ground to get on to the return pass from the welshman, took it past a defender with 1 touch and put it into the danger area between the goal keeper and the defenders which was basically the typical type of ball you want if your a striker and hernandez was happy to oblige to that and was there for the tap in! It was a brilliant start for the red devils and marseille i must say were for the first few min shocked at the speed at which united were playing!
They did however start to get back into the game and began to create chances. One of those falling to gignac who tried to put it over van der sar into the goal but his effort was well off and he shouldv just blasted his volley into the back of the net! Marseille then took control of the game and had more possession than united although that they were lacking quality in the box and did let a few very good chances go to waste! Cheyrou was having a very good game for the visitors and looked to be the main threat to united along with lucho and remy who surprisingly was getting the better of evra at times!
At the other end rooney was having a brilliant game and this is the 1st time ive seen him this involved in the play since back in april when he was tearing down defences! This time around it was a less of a goal threat from him but the quality of passing and movement in the center of the park was superb from the englishman!
One player who didn seem to be performing at all though was nani. The portugese was having a relatively quiet night and he looked to be very hesitant to take on taiwo due to the left back's pace and was opting to pass the ball more instead. This of couse took out one of united's major goal threats and it was a very disappointing night for the no.17 who was taken off in the second half
John o shea had his hamstring pulled in the 35th min following a good run from him down the right hand flank and young rafael was brought on to replace him.
SECOND HALF
The second half started along the same pattern at which the first had ended with a battle for possession going on though united did look to be better this time around.
Nani was taken off for valencia who was greeted by cheers from the united faithful.It was the first champions league match for Ecuadorian since that horrific injury to his ankle!
United had looked shaky at the back for most of the match and the absence of vidic was highlited when a cross from taiwo came in and brown completely mis-timed his kick and it couldv really gone anywhere from hitting his leg but he was lucky. The ball took a slight deflection off of his shin and went behind for a corner.
Remy continued to trouble united down their left hand side and evra was having to stick very close to him to deal with the wingers pace. Regular crosses though were coming in from that side but again not enough quality in the box to seriously trouble van der sar!
United did have more problems at the back from there after rafael, who had come on to replace john o shea in the first half, also managed to pull his hamstring. Fabio was brought on to replace his twin brother and at that point the marseille players must have said to themselves, 'we need to go for this now more than ever'
However it was United who began to trouble marseille a bit more and giggs shifted to centre of the park combining with valencia to deadly effect in the 75th min
Giggs bursted down the right hand side but had to cut back and pass it to valencia. The latter then did well to find a bit of space for himself and layed of a beautiful through ball for giggs who squared it into the box with his right foot and hernandez finished it off into the bottom left corner. A good finish following what was a very good move down the right hand side for the red devils.
Wes brown put a header in into his own net following a velbuena corner which made the game very interesting for the last 10 minutes but united managed to hang on and although marseille dominated large periods of the match, it was that ruthlessness in front of goal that won united the match which they did deserve on the night!
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