In a few hours, United will be playing their first UEFA Champions’ League last 16 matches in 2 years, yes, it’s not a typo, they’ve been out in the group stages in the last two years. One of the opposition that caused them to fail last year is none other than Lille, the team they’ll be playing tonight.
United will be at full strength, with no one out of injury –a rare occasion at United, and Sir Alex is expected to field a full strength team as followed: Neville and Evra at both flanks, Vidic to partner Ferdinand in the middle of the defence, Scholes and Carrick to control the tempo from the midfield, supported by Ronaldo and Giggs from the wings. On the front, Rooney is expected to explode with Larsson forging a great partnership along with him so far. The only position that Sir Alex might ponder is goalie with Kuszcak playing pretty good during van der Sar’s absence. My guess is that van der Sar will start.
mindcubes’ longtail: It’ll be a difficult game for United as Lille a team that works hard, nevertheless, Evra and Neville will prove as the keys tonight as the width of the football field will make a little difference to the outcome of the game. LILLE 0 – UNITED 2
4-0 at White Hart Lane, that’s no small feat and all two thumbs up to my United. It was a master class performance, and the second half football is just absolutely beatiful and efficient. The taint was of course van der Sar’s broken nose at the end of the game, although O’Shea performance at the goalie is absolutely fantastic!! Denying Keane and another corner punched, that was one of the most interesting game!!
Vidic deserved to be the Man of the Match although Scholes, who won the award, dictated the midfield along with Carrick, whose in-swinging corner found Vidic to seal the game in the early minutes of the second half. Everyone deserves an applause last night, including van der Sar who made two great saves, one similar to the goal that was conceded against Henry a couple weeks ago, only this time Berbatov’s header was safely tipped over the bar, en route to a second consecutive clean-sheet.
Will it be another defeat for United at White Hart Lane on yet another late kick-off game away from home? My gut telling me it might be. That’s a tricky answer, especially if you’re a lifelong fan, and your gut is most of the times a pretty good predicament of what’s going to happen to your beloved team.
In a few hours time, United will kick-off their Premiership match against Watford, looking to maintain their 6 points over Chelsea, with Liverpool lurking 2 point behind Chelsea after their win at Upton Park yesterday. Watford will be without Danny Shittu and Foster, the United on-loan goalie. I’m pretty glad that Premiership prohibit players on load to play against their parent club as the memory of Morientes torturing his own club, Real Madrid during his loan time at Monaco in the Champions League is still vivid. His career was never been the same after he returned to Madrid from that pretty successful Monaco spell.
