Match Report: Manchester United 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur

You may also find these links interesting:

Ben Foster saves penalty

Manchester United won the Carling Cup on penalties after a confident display in the penalty shoot out following a goalless 120 minutes – which they just about edged.

The Red Devils made all the early running and a free kick from Ronaldo, a long shot from Darron Gibson and a fantastic piece of improvisation from Rio Ferdinand all resulted in the ball going narrowly over or wide from long distance, while Nani was the only United player to really test goalkeeper Gomes with a 20 yard drive.

Tottenham pushed on towards the end of the first half with Aaron Lennon showing his football equivalence of a toothless Yorkshire Terrier – plenty of running and effort but no real bite at the end of it, save for a shot in the second half which United keeper Ben Foster saved magnificently.

Anderson made his return from injury coming on for Danny Welbeck and immediately added a dynamism to the midfield, regularly carrying the ball over long distances or finding unexpected spaces, while Paul Scholes’ good form continued as the Ginger Prince sprayed 50 yard pass after 50 yard pass all over the pitch.

With a quarter of the game remaining Chris Foy made a big call by booking Cristiano Ronaldo for diving after a challenge from Ledley King just inside the area. Clearly this was a case of the Madeira magician’s reputation preceding him and his dive last week against Blackburn will have done him no favours in this instance. Replays showed contact was made and the debate will go on, do Ronaldo’s previous wrongs make this incorrect decision right?

Anderson had a 20 yard drive comfortably handled by Gomes and the best chance of the entire game came with 30 seconds of injury time after 90 minutes remaining, Ronaldo cutting in wickedly from the left and driving with real menace. The ball for once evaded the Spurs keeper but smashed against the post and bounced back into play.

United were shorn of Wayne Rooney due to a virus and Sir Alex Ferguson opted to leave Berbatov out altogether – this left the team with little aerial threat and the decision to replace Gibson with Ryan Giggs for extra time showed that Fergie was looking to win the tie with incisive passing.

The extra period provided little in the way of chances – just one clear cut for each side, Foster doing well again to deny Bent and Evra’s speculative shot astonishingly flying over the crossbar.

With penalties looming Redknapp brought on Bentley and O’Hara (who had missed last years triumph after being dropped by Ramos).

Ryan Giggs was first up and his penalty cannoned off the same post Ronaldo had hit earlier, only this time the ball whipped into the back of the net. United’s good fortune, and O’Hara’s unfortunate relationship with the Cup continued as the youngster’s strike was superbly saved by Ben Foster.

Tevez scored, as did Corluka, and when Ronaldo exorcised his Champions League demons with a successful strike from 12 yards Bentley knew his penalty was crucial. The expensive summer signing fluffed his lines, though, as his shot went wide of the post, and it was left to Anderson to have the chance to win the Cup.

United fans had already seen Anderson’s coolness under such pressure when he converted a sudden death penalty in the Champions League, and the man himself appeared to have little concern as he casually knocked the ball past Gomes to claim the trophy for Sir Alex’s troops.

The manager himself remained cool on talk of an unprecedented quintuple, but one thing that cannot be denied is that after this triumph and with such a commanding position in the league, United are on the verge of at least the second most successful season by an English side ever (the first being United’s treble side of 1999), regardless of whether they win the European Cup or FA Cup.

Source: (Yolkie)

2 Comments on Match Report: Manchester United 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur

  1. I agree that Lennon was largely toothless, but the problem from United’s point of view was that he shouldn’t have been given all that space in the first place. I’m sorry to open up the old Nani debate, but he should have supported Evra a lot better when Spurs kept feeding the ball to Lennon.

  2. Just a footnote to the article, of course Liverpool’s treble which included the League Cup, European Cup and League title in 84 is the second most successful season by an English club.

    It’s debatable whether our season if we win the league this season would be the second most successful, it all depends on your opinion – does the World Club Cup supercede the European Cup due to the fact you have to win the CL to qualify? Technically yes but glamour wise (and to every other football fan) probably not.

    However if we win the League and FA Cup we will be the first club to ever win the domestic treble and if we win the League and European Cup then there will be no argument at all..!

    Hakan, yes, Nani could have supported Evra better but he was picked with the knowledge he probably wouldn’t – that was Fergie’s call and ultimately (however narrowly) he was right, even though the actual matchplay seemed to suggest it was a bad move.

    There seem to be noises that he will go in the summer, I agree he’s been very hot and cold but I still think he’s worth a shot at development, people forget (I’m not comparing the two) that Ronaldo’s early days were very similar. Even if Nani turns out to be just a decent squad player, it’s a good option to have.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*