United go into what is a must win second-leg Champions League quarter-final tie knowing that no other British club has won away at Porto in 21 attempts. Fergie says that United are adept at doing things first, citing winning the World Club Championship, the Premier League and becoming the first English club to lift the European Cup. It was a fair response from the United manager given that United go into tonight's game as underdogs with few expecting them to win, but if the circumstances were different Fergie would have likely said his players and the management do not think about former glories, because they concentrate on winning the next trophy.
No one epitomised than driving force better than former skipper and legend Roy Keane, who memorably led the team back from the dead in Turin in 1999, when scoring after the Reds had gone two-nil down in the opening minutes against Juventus. United went to on to win the Champions League in what turned out to be a historic treble winning season. Everyone connected with the club has their own favourite memories of 1999, but there's no question that the champions performance in the Stadio Delle Alpi was without doubt one of United's finest in the club's history.
Ferguson knows his team are not playing well, everyone knows it. The defence has been all over the place in recent weeks due to injuries and suspensions, tonight the team must gel from front to back, and there cannot be any repeat of the sloppiness at the back that has seen United conceding goals like a team threatened with relegation.
Ahead of the big game, Fergie has issued a clarion call to his players in a bid to invoke the Spirit of Turin; the question is who among the current United team is capable of taking the game by the scruff of its neck and powering them forward to victory? I give you my four main candidates: Rooney, Tevez, Vidic or maybe Ronaldo, but sadly Tevez will likely start from the bench - and if that is so then I fear the worst, because he HAS to start for United to have any chance of winning.
Rooney and Ronaldo are capable of winning any game - we know that Rooney will give 100%, we cannot say the same of Ronaldo... the question is, will he respond to the situation, it is to be hoped so because he is after all playing in his homeland.
Vidic owes United a big performance and so here again he is a potential match-winner.
United can win tonight providing Fergie picks the right team from the start, which in my mind means leaving out Berbatov from the starting eleven. However, if United go out, it might be better to lose to Porto rather than against Arsenal in the semi-final, because on current form that is a real possibility.
u over-rate tevez tbh
ReplyDeletewe will do just fine without him
granted, his work rate was needed when we had injuries in defence but rio is back now
we need to score and tbh, tevez doesn't look as composed in front of goal as our other forwards.
tbh, you're entitled to your opinion, but I'd go with Tevez before Berbatov, and Lord save us Park, any day of the week.
ReplyDelete