Dynamo Kiev 2-4 Manchester United

We have waited a few years for this, a no holds barred all out attacking away performance in Europe. As admittedly bad as kiev were, it should not take anything away from uniteds performance, which was top notch. When you can score four goals away from home in Europe, and almost all the newspaper reports are saying how many it could have been, things can't be too bad.
And all this after losing Scholes in training the night before and then Evra in the warm up. Whilst Anderson had a superb game and looks like he is going to be the real deal, we have got to hope that the scan on Scholes's knee does not reveal any serious damage. Hopefully the injury to Evra is not too bad, with Gary Neville out, if Evra doesn't play we are without an attacking full back who can get up and down the flank. In fact with the opposition being a struggling Middlesbrough on Saturday, i wouldn't mind Danny Simpson getting a start on Saturday, that's if Gary Neville isn't fit, which doesn't seem likely as he still hasn't had any reserve team football.
What was good to see last night was the team pick up where it left off against villa on Saturday, attacking with great passing and movement. It certainly wasn't what Kiev were expecting, as they just couldn't cope with United right from the first whistle. They were really abysmal, a shadow of the Kiev sides who had proven to be one of the best sides in Europe at home in the past. With the players at United's disposal and the beautiful football they have been playing, it didn't really help Kiev's cause to give such a soft opening goal away. Ferdinand wont score an easier goal all season. The second was almost as easy with Kiev losing it on the half way and Ronaldo taking it forward, before giving it to Brown who had done brilliantly to overlap and he crossed the ball to Rooney for a simple tap in.
The only blot on a tremendous first half performance was the poor marking that led to their goal, fortunately it didn't matter on the night as we just went up the other end and scored again. But that was the second headed goal against us in two games, maybe something to keep an eye on. The third followed a great run and cross from Giggs down the left hand side that found Ronaldo totally unmarked in the penalty area, and he made absolutely no mistake with a header that was reminiscent of one of the heroes of my youth, big Joe Jordan.
So 3-1 at half time and things were looking very good, and whilst the second half was not quite up to the level of the first half, it was still pretty good. We didn't quite dominate possession as we had done in the first half, but i suppose that was to be expected, Kiev couldn't really be as bad again could they. As well as Anderson had played in the first half it was the second half that he really caught my eye, he has got a complete range of passing, short and long, a great engine, does more than his fair share of work, and to top it all nearly scored. When he hit the post i thought at first he hadn't quite caught it right, but on seeing the replay saw that he had side footed it aiming for the corner of the net, if that had gone in it would have been a brilliant finish. I still think he could play the position Giggs has been playing this season, but watching the last two games it looks like maybe we have found the natural replacement for Scholes in the centre of midfield. He is one very exciting talent, and that price tag could prove to be a bargain. Opinion seems to be divided over whether the penalty decision was harsh, it looked pretty blatant to me, he raised his arm in the penalty area, and it hit it, penalty. He takes a mean penalty as well, Ronaldo, run up, stop, run up again and hit it into the corner, cool as. It was a pity about the last goal, but i wouldn't blame anyone too much, i certainly didn't blame Van Der Sar for it. We were a bit guilty of trying to walk it into the net at times in the second half, but they had earned the right to show boat a bit i felt. In fact i want us to try some of the things they were trying in the second half. Let's face it, these are the type of games where they should try these things because you can't be trying them against your Arsenal's and Liverpool's.
So four goals for third time in a row, that didn't seem likely just a few weeks ago did it. And who would bet against us doing the same on Saturday in a 3 o'clock kick off.