UCL Group D: Manchester Utd x Benfica [P+R]

untouchable said:

I dont understand the whole "deserved to win" thing. If you win then you deserve to win, obviously, if a team has a barrage of chances, yet squanders all of them, they dont deserve to win because they can't take their chances.

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As far as i know, a team's performance tells whether it deserved to win, draw or lose...

Certainly if you watch soccer games for a while, you will notice that in many games, the winning team is not always the team who deserved to win really... i thought everybody knew that! anyway... (refer to the 1982 World Cup final Italy vs Brazil)

Benfica played well, was not controlled by Man Utd... both teams had their spell of possession during the game. At times, Benfica controlled the game the same goes to Man Utd...

Benfica deserved the draw... call me biased if u want to....

any 1 have the champions league highlights?

those who said we didnt deserve and we played crap apparently didnt watch the FULL match. I thought it was entertaining.

we played better in the 1st half...every united player stepped up Ruud had a very good game...he came deep and got involved in the play a lot. unlucky hit the post after fantastic control. We got caught out at the back sometimes but managed to handle it. Everytime ronaldo got the ball there were 5 benfca players surrounding him. disappointed with fletcher though...kept giving the ball away.

I thought we deserved the win... there was more desire..sense of urgency and better attitude shown by us.

Last night, United didn't play aswell as they could of. But a great free kick by Giggsy and a simple tap in from van Nistelrooy and hopefully we can win the group and qualify.

I thought Edwin van der Sar playing f*cking class last night...don't you think, he pulled off some brilliant saves.

Another thing I disagree on is the lone striker system.

A simple 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 would suffice, and I don't know why Fergie was being booed at the Blackburn game, after all he's done for the club.

Rooney was banned for the match, tactical genius.

Another player I thought who played brilliant was Bardsley. Sorry Andrejs I just don't agree with lone strikers, there has to be atleast 2 up front in my opinion.

My Player ratings for last night's game with Benfica:-
Van der Sar (10), Bardsley (8), Ferdinand (8), O'Shea (7), Richardson (9), Fletcher (7), Smith (8), Scholes (7), Ronaldo(8), van Nistelrooy(8), Giggs (9).

LeeStewart said:

Another player I thought who played brilliant was Bardsley. Sorry Andrejs I just don't agree with lone strikers, there has to be atleast 2 up front in my opinion.

My Player ratings for last night's game with Benfica:-
Van der Sar (10), Bardsley (8), Ferdinand (8), O'Shea (7), Richardson (9), Fletcher (7), Smith (8), Scholes (7), Ronaldo(8), van Nistelrooy(8), Giggs (9).

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with these rating, seems like we totally outclass benfica but in fact it is not. you probably over rated some of the players

LeeStewart said:

Sorry Andrejs I just don't agree with lone strikers, there has to be atleast 2 up front in my opinion.

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I don't like using a lone striker either, but who would have you played with Ruud then? Rossi?

LeeStewart said:

Another player I thought who played brilliant was Bardsley. Sorry Andrejs I just don't agree with lone strikers, there has to be atleast 2 up front in my opinion.

My Player ratings for last night's game with Benfica:-
Van der Sar (10), Bardsley (8), Ferdinand (8), O'Shea (7), Richardson (9), Fletcher (7), Smith (8), Scholes (7), Ronaldo(8), van Nistelrooy(8), Giggs (9).

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Some of your ratings on our players is a bloody joke.

LeeStewart said:

Last night, United didn't play aswell as they could of. But a great free kick by Giggsy.

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yea f*cking brilliant man, the way it struck the wall, just perfect and all planned

you're a legend

Just a couple thoughts:

- Koeman is .

- Don't blame Beto, blame his coach instead: he was playing out of position; there's nothing in him that suggests he should play as a winger - he misses the speed, the flair, the technique; clearly he was lacking confidence and was conscious he was having a terrible game. What else could he do? Sub himself?

- ManU deserved the win. Koeman missed a good chance to miss a good chance to win in OT, all because he is a chicken sh!t.

- Kudos to Simão: stepped it up when the team most needed him! Hope he brings that to the NT awell.

- Miccoli is terrible at passing the ball under pressure. Need more games to confirm this.

- Koeman is .

Actually Giuseppe Rossi is a fantastic young player and I do not know why Fergie doesn't play him more often.

Andrejs said:

I don't like using a lone striker either, but who would have you played with Ruud then? Rossi?

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in order to bring back the best of scholes, i reckon we should use the tactic which brought us so many goals, 4-4-1-1, Scholes behind Ruud

one small note to our outstanding fans at Old Trafford last night. 4k that gave us a great support. some parts of the game it looked like the game was being played at Luz

other note: great game of Manuel Fernandes! this is the real Manel. i liked Nelson too. in the second half he controlled Giggs IMO.




and infesta is right, we can't blame only Beto. he is a good alternative for Fernandes or Petit, never a RW. and it's not the first time Koeman put him at the wing. Isso só o queima mas nada...

our team display last night make me believe even more in the last 16. the games against Villarreal will be crucial.

LeeStewart said:

Actually Giuseppe Rossi is a fantastic young player and I do not know why Fergie doesn't play him more often.

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Maybe he isn't ready for CL yet, how many times has he played for us? If Rooney or Saha(haha) will come back then we should play with 2 fowards, but yesterday there weren't many options.

Highlight of the game (for those watching the portuguese commentary):

Benfica counterattacking, Miccoli is making a run, Nuno Gomes tries to hit him with a pass but gives the ball away to O'Shea. Nonetheless, the ManU defender loses his balance and lets the ball pass between his legs to Miccoli, who misses the shot.

Here's the chain of events on my tv: Miccoli misses -> Gabriel Alves, O Eterno, on the play: 'Very good pass from Nuno Gomes.' -> Tv shows the replay -> Silence.

:Bow:

INFESTA said:

Highlight of the game (for those watching the portuguese commentary):

Benfica counterattacking, Miccoli is making a run, Nuno Gomes tries to hit him with a pass but gives the ball away to O'Shea. Nonetheless, the ManU defender loses his balance and lets the ball pass between his legs to Miccoli, who misses the shot.

Here's the chain of events on my tv: Miccoli misses -> Gabriel Alves, O Eterno, on the play: 'Very good pass from Nuno Gomes.' -> Tv shows the replay -> Silence.

:Bow:

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HaHa

And Alves all hyped up picking on Koeman near the end of the match...legendary stuff once again.

shokz said:

The irony in van Nistelrooy scoring that winner when Queerarse and Ferguson needed it badly, and no one hates 4-5-1/4-3-3 more than Ruud van Nistelrooy. Alan Smith, midfield general? is he fuck. Ronaldo's form has been poor but I can understand that, but how the fuck does Fletcherson get in the team when there are better players like Lee Martin and Giuseppe Rossi. I'd even give Miller a run in the side over Fletcherson.

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by saying fletcherson do you mean fletcher and RICHARDSON ?

as far as i know i tend to hype up kieran much i think u may be wrong on the richardson thing mate.
fketcher eally had a poor game. i agree with you.
but richardson was really good he combined well with giggsy on the left.
naturally an attacking sense, this guy even tried to defend as good as possible with his pace. keep in his exact left midfieldposition and he'll screw the biggest defenders with his pace.

and ya. rossi and martin-the wimbledon signed from youngster deserve a run out.
people talk crap about not ready forcl, bla bla bla. but sometimesplayers like these when given a sudden run out create miracles with their trickery and single handedly change the game.


i still dont know why fergie even keeps a subs bench for united. he never uses our subs. bringing on park instead of fletcher or even bringing rossi would have eased our side fatser rather than waiting for the 85th minute.

and another thing- what was that f*cking piece of skill ruud did in the first half? absolute class.

Punkt said:

some parts of the game it looked like the game was being played at Luz

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No way I was there and i could hardly hear them, altho they did bring in a couple of flares that sent the stewards crazy