Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea ( Uinted win 6-5 on penalties

I might have to buy that t-shirt


Champions of Europe, oh how good it is to be able to sing that again. It would have been nice not to have won it on penalties, but hey who cares. And at last the real United turned up in a big European game as United came out and totally dominated the first half playing the kind of football we had all hoped we would see. The second half was a different story of course, but at least we went out on that pitch and played the game the way Manchester United should.
The team was as expected apart from Fergie picking Hargreaves instead of Park on the right. I presume Ferguson went for the strength of Hargreaves over the stamina of Park to counter the physicality of the rentboys. He didn't let anybody down playing reasonably well though he wasn't too much of a threat to Chelsea going forward. But that wasn't really his job.
The main surprise was united starting off in a 4-4-2 formation with Scholes and Carrick in central midfield. And lo and behold United played miles better than in almost any of our other games in Europe this season. Though even as a fan of 4-4-2 i was amazed how total our grip on the game became the longer the first half wore on. Scholes showed that he is still a top player and Carrick put in a top performance as well. Ronaldo was on fire on the left hand side giving the out of position Essien a torrid time. Rooney had a strange game, although a case could be made to say he had a poor game he was still involved in some great moves. And that long raking pass that found Ronaldo to set up the Tevez header was out of this world. If we had converted that chance it is hard to see the second half panning out like it eventually did. That would have been one of the all time great champions league goals, and to be brutally honest Tevez could have done better but Carrick should have done better. With all the right hand side of the goal to aim at why did he aim straight at the goalie allowing Cech the chance to make a good save when he should have been given no chance. The first goal was the result of some lovely first touch play between Scholes and Wes Brown that ended with Brown's floated cross headed powerfully home by Ronaldo after his leap left the Chelsea defence for dead. Tevez had another good chance, but couldn't reach out to touch home Rooney's cross. Unfortunately United switched off with a couple of minutes of the first half to go thinking there job was done. Maybe that is a bit harsh because Lampard's equaliser had a massive amount of good fortune about it. Essien struck a hopeful long shot from way outside the penalty area that wasn't going to hurt anybody but the ball took not one but two deflections that left Ferdinand stranded as the ball rebounded to Lampard who then it has to be admitted beat Van Der Sar with the utmost ease. So after completely bossing the game we went in all square, unbelievable.
The second half saw a complete turn around in the game as Chelsea now started to take a grip of the game. Rooney and Ronaldo disappeared from the game as it was now Chelsea who were calling the shots. The one heart stopping moment of the half was the Drogba shot that hit the upright with quarter of an hour to go. With 3 minutes to go Scholes was replaced by the record breaker Ryan Giggs as extra time looked on the cards.
Thankfully extra time saw United regain their first half form as both teams went for the win and both teams had the chances to win it. Lampard had a shot that hit an upright and Giggs looked certain to score after a brilliant run and cross from Evra but Terry got back to hit it off the line. With four minutes left Droba totally needlessly and unbelievably stupidly got himself sent off, a nice little bonus as penalties edged closer as he would have surely taken one. And then came the dreaded penalty shoot out, i am the eternal optimist as a match gets closer i always go thinking we are going to win. But i'm the total opposite when it comes to penalty shootouts, i always expect us to lose them. And with good reason it has to be said our record whilst i have been following United from 1973 onwards is awful. I still can't forget the Defeat in the cup final at Cardiff where we absolutely murdered Arsenal but couldn't put the ball in the back of the net and then lost the penalty shootout. Well last night made up for that and then some. Though when Ronaldo missed his i feared he we go again. Good old John Terry , he was a red as a kid wasn't he, maybe his left foot still is. It must be unbelievably horrible to lose that but tough titty as they say.
I went to the ground after watching the match in the pub, was there any pub in Manchester that wasn't hammered last night, and the celebrations had already begun.

A fitting tribute to the Busby babes 50 years on.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/22/manchesterunited.championsleague

David Pleat's chalkboard
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/05/22/united_floundered_when_supply.html

Fergies press conference and a piece form Daniel Taylor in the Gaurdian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/22/manchesterunited.chelsea1

James Lawton on Ferguson's competitive spirit
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-fergusons-competitive-spirit-edges-epic-contest-832232.html

Ronaldo redeemed on the night, but not Drogba
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/ronaldo-redeemed-after-drogbas-moscow-madness-earns-a-red-card-832227.html

Manchester gets ready to party
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/manchester-faithful-get-to-paint-the-city-red-832257.html

Martin Samuel on last night
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article3981783.ece

Ferguson will already plotting for next season
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3987498.ece

Henry Winter's match report in the Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/05/22/sfgman522.xml

Van Der Sar greatful for a second champions league medal
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/05/22/ufnvan122.xml