Roma 1-1 Manchester United

This was a creditable draw considering the side that Ferguson put out. But to be fair i am not sure how much we can take out of it. With both sides already through and United assured of top spot neither side seemed to take it too seriously. I was very surprised at Roma we had heard that they would be picking a strong team and would not be taking the game lightly as they still smart from the 7-1 drubbing that we handed to them in the quarter finals last season. But though admittedly a much stronger team than ours they had still left two or three better players out. Right from the kick off there wasn't much sign of them busting a gut to avenge that defeat, and the first 45 minutes was amongst the easiest of the season so far. But fair play to the lads that came in, they did all that was asked of them , defending when they had too and kept possession very well. In fact they totally bossed the game at times in the first half, and had the better of territorially and possession wise. Add to that the goal from Pique who seems to have the knack of goals from set pieces and it was a very satisfactory first half.
The second half started in a similar fashion, with United having plenty of possession, especially with Rooney cleverly dropping deep to link midfield to attack. Apparently it was his decision to play as he felt he hasn't played enough games this season, some of the pundits on sky thought it was a crazy decision to play in a meaningless game, four days before one of our biggest games of the season. But he totally vindicated the decision for me, leading the team by example, finding space at will and knitting our performance together. Carrick seemed to have his best game for ages, but he was given an easy ride for the first seventy minutes, and didn't seem so sure of himself in the last twenty minutes, when the thought of an embarrassing defeat by a virtual reserve team forced their manager to bring on his subs and have virtually his first eleven on the pitch. Even then the game became more end to end than a game dominated by the home side.
Just as Rooney was about to come off, Roma did get the equaliser that they had started to threaten to get. But he had had more than done his work for the night, the interplay between him and Saha that nearly brought us a second goal that would probably have killed the game off was the move of the night. In the last ten minutes there were chances at both ends with Nani and Eagles going close for us.
But when the whistle went Uni teds boys could feel satisfied with a good nights work. Simpson did his future chances no harm with another impressive performance especially as he had to switch to left back when O'Shea had to go off, and he didn't look too out of the place on the left. Pique and Johnny Evans both did themselves no harm with reasonable performances, and although i still don't think he has a future in the first team at United, Eagles had a reasonable game, and did not look out of place. The one youngster who didn't impress me was Nani, he did some good things but i thought he chose the wrong option too many times and kept the ball too long when team mates were better placed. But apparently he is a confidence player, so i wasn't surprised that Ferguson said good things about after the game.
The one disappointing aspect of the night was bringing Dong on as a substitute instead of Brandy, we all know that Dong is never ever going to be a Manchester United player, whilst Brandy has definitely got something about him, and would have been nice to see him on this stage, it couldn't have done him any harm.
Now for the big one, i have got to say i am pretty confident, they are a better team than last season, Torres signing has mostly seen to that, he is a class act. But man for man, and on the substitutes bench i believe we are still far superior than them.

Two man ban for Ferguson
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227798,00.html
Fergie reveals roots of his rise to greatness
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227510,00.html

Benitez still not a happy bunny
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/liverpool/article3048626.ece

Capello announced as new England manager
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227603,00.html
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2227457,00.html
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/12/12/the_night_of_glorious_triumph.html

Are the banks in control of the situation? as they act on meltdown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/13/bankofenglandgovernor.creditcrunch

Robert Fisk on the latest events in Lebanon
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article3247574.ece

Migrant workers exploited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/immigration/story/0,,2226607,00.html

Financial power moves east, this time Jeff Randall looks at the after effects of the credit crunch
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IJ4ZO5OX5OAUTQFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/opinion/2007/12/14/do1401.xml

The Aussies want to bring in night day cricket
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article3048759.ece
what a terrible idea, i can't think of one thing that this idea has going for it.