Manchester United vs. Benfica (Champions League) Review

United gave its fans a real scare before they wrapped up the tie with some nice and crispy display of footballing brilliance that we have been wanting to see all season.
Benfice came to the Theatre of Dreams, ‘dreaming’ of eliminating United from the last-16 for the second season running but the only ‘dreams’ that were entertained on this cold night were that of the Red Devils’ fans! Although it took a goal to get those red shirts into action, but boy once they were at it, there was no stopping them!

They scored a scorcher in the 27th minute, by which United had been struggling to impose their autority over the game and Benfice were finding the going not-so-difficult after all. But the goal shocked the players and fans alike and sprung United into action! United literally laid seige to the Benfica from then on and the efforts by the men in Red paid off finally just before half-time. Ryan Gigga floated a free-kick in from the left over the wall and Nemaja Vidic was at hand to head home the equalising goal and ease some anxious United nerves.

United continued with the same fervour in the second half and it paid off as Ronaldo delivered a pinpoint cross in the box for Ryan Giggs to head in and give us the lead! It was cruise control from then on and Saha’s header from a Rooney’s cross confirmed the writing on the wall, that United had finally taken the revenge against the team that dumped them out last season.

With Celtic, United qualified as group winners in the end but how much were the fans made to bite their nails on this one?!

Other Reports: BBC, Soccernet.

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In the News…

Before our all-important Champions League fixture against Benfica tonight, I wanted to cover a couple of news stories taking shape out there in the press today. First of all, Mr. Mourinho came out saying all kinds of bull recently after his sore little draw here and he’s continued the trend saying he is rooting for the ‘Super Eagles’, as if we didn’t know that already! It is obvious the guy hasn’t had any serious competition to his thrown at the top of the League and with United leading the way now, he is feeling the heat!

On the other hand, Fergie is certain United will not fail tonight. That kind of optimism generally leads us in the wrong but let’s just hope that one was for the press only. Speaking of ‘for the press only’, Fergie has come out in defence of our winger Ronaldo too saying he is a ‘revenge victim’. While I may agree that he ‘did’ lose his balance at the wrong end of the field, it has been a rather common sight of late. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I’d rather win fair and square avoiding these controversies altogether. But I will agree with Fergie on one thing, that the press is always waiting for the opportunity to jump on Ronaldo’s back as soon as they see anything dubious from him which is ridiculous to say the least!

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