C'mon United!
After United's shocking loss to Pompey today, things suddenly look a bit unsettled for us both in the Premiership and UEFA Champions League.
United still has Chelsea to play. Boro, an on form Everton and Hammers which have shocked us earlier on this season can potentially be banana skins to us. The only consolation is that Chelsea has tougher fixtures ahead, with the likes of Arsenal, Bolton, Everton, West Ham and Blackburn. The desperate West Ham may be the king maker as they have been winning the last few matches (including Arsenal at Emirates) in their despearation to survive. Chelsea rarely has bad luck, always managing 1 - 0 win despite playing terribly. It's hard to see Cech conceding goals in league games, with most of Chelsea's dropped points during his absence. In the past we have always managed to excel in the second half of the season, hope this time around we will do it again.
As for Champions League, the historical statistics below indicate that we've been having bad dreams at the Theatre of Dreams. Hopefully this time we'll be able to defy the odds and secure a home win in return leg finally.
It has been a fantastic season for us so far. We've been scoring a lot of goals. But the amount of goals won't matter if we lose games that matter like what we've done in the past few seasons, e.g. beating Liverpool in league game (not winning the league in the end) and lost in FA Cup final to them one or two weeks later. I'll rather win games 1 - 0 like Chelsea than winning 4 - 1 on most games but lose by one goal margin in few others.
Really hope this will be our season. It does not have to be a treble, but at least the Premiership!
Previous Champions League encounters which we lost at home on aggregate in return legs.
2003-04 (Round of 16) 1st leg: Porto 2 Man Utd 1. 2nd leg: Man Utd 1 Porto 1 At Old Trafford, a Paul Scholes first-half goal looked to be enough for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men – until Costinha’s 90th-minute equaliser
1999-2000 (QF) 1st leg: R Madrid 0 Man Utd 0. 2nd leg: Man Utd 2 R Madrid 3 Roy Keane’s own goal and two Raul strikes put Madrid 3-0 up before replies from Paul Scholes and David Beckham. Too little, too late
1997-98 (QF) 1st leg: Monaco 0 Man Utd 0. 2nd leg: Man Utd 1 Monaco 1 David Trezeguet’s sixth-minute goal rocked lacklustre United, who went out on away goals
1996-97 (SF) 1st leg: B Dortmund 1 Man Utd 0. 2nd leg: Man Utd 0 B Dortmund 1 United were confident, but Lars Ricken scored at Old Trafford and United missed a hatful of chances. Eric Cantona told Ferguson the next day he would retire at the end of the season
2 comments:
yeah i know i'm saying this after the 7-1 win, but i wouldve said the same things even before the game
yes u can go surf the net and copy and paste stats about united never overturning a deficit... but then there are lies, damned lies and statistics... i look more at form... yes they lost to pompey... but they still had a considerable no. of shots on goal, and couldve been 3-0 up but for the david james' superb performance... even against blackburn they were losing 1-0 until they scored 4 in 14 minutes...
if the way united play means that they thrash teams one day, but lose by the odd goal on others, then so be it... i come to support and love united for their attacking football... it's the reason why their 1999 euro cup win and barca's last year were popular amongst football fans and would be remembered for years to come, but liverpool's 2 years ago would not
one thing i love about united (and arsenal in their wenger years) is that they come out to entertain.... 1 or 2 goals is never enough... fergie has never changed tactics to defend 1 or 2 goal except to rest certain injury-prone players.... and this attitude hasnt changed a bit in the last 15 years
the pompey loss was coming... united have been lucky themselves, winning last minute at lpool and fulham.... no team is perfect.. even when arsenal were unbeaten for the whole season, they had many draws and played very defensively in some games just to get the draw and preserve their record, rather than come out and win the game
if at the start of the season, someone wouldve told me that with 6 games to go, united would be leading by 3 points, and in the semifinals of both the Euro and FA Cups, I wouldve taken it
they have done really really well this season, and i think that on performances they are even better than the 1998-99 team.. i hope that they can go on to repeat the success.. but if all goes horribly wrong, it would not diminish my support for them by one bit... on the contrary, whatever happens after this, this season has made me love united even more...
and if chelsea do win, all praises to them.. their performances so far have shown that they have grit the nerve to battle right thru the very end... only thing is their very defensive play at times.. which to me is waste of the talent that they have
sorry another thing to add...
"Hopefully this time we'll be able to defy the odds and secure a home win in return leg finally."
what odds? the odds were always for a united home win.. even fergie was smiling at the end of the 2-1 loss in rome.. stats dont count for anything, especially stats that go back to almost 10 years ago...
thing is about the current united team is that they are superb at home in any competition, but quite poor away in europe (particularly in the last couple years)
anyway, i still remember when the King retired... he maybe did tell fergie earlier, but he only announced it publicly at the end of the season... i remember going to old trafford the day aftefsr the announcement, and everyone was down and gloomy, and this despite jsut winning the league for the 4th time in 5 years, (considering they didnt win it for 26 years!)
Post a Comment