UNITED HIT BRICK WALL

 

Picture taken from Manutd.com

 

It had been a while since they'd been a European night as nervy as this. United were in third place, in line only for a UEFA Cup position with the posibility that they could still get knocked out of European competition alltogether. The good news was that we'd already drawn with Villarreal in Spain, a win would mean we'd hit the top of the table. The one thing providing a laugh was the identity of the buggers of the United dressing room against Chelsea - it woz the Sun wot done it! Should have guessed.

Well, early on in the match, it looked like we'd get that win, without Diego Forlan, Rooney looked up for taking on the oppisition single handed. The Villarreal goal was outright hammered early on but did the ball go in the net? No it did not. The Yellow Submarine tried firing a few torpedoes of their own but generally it was United's show.

That was really as good as it got for United. In the second half Rooney ran out of fuel and Villarreal started taking the mickey, not helped by a brain dead referee who was happy to fall for all their cack. Rooney and Ronaldo both fired in free kicks, Park came on and had a great chance only to get tackled by a Villarreal defender, Gary Neville come on in a return from injury but...nothing but air. United are still left in third and need to get something out of Lisbon in the last group game against Benefica to pick up anything.

Elsewhere, Arsenal had already qualified but still kept up their 100% record by beating Thun in Berne, though only 1-0 thanks to Pires's late winner and that was after Thun went down to 10 men. Having said that, Arsenal could afford to cruise given their circumstances.

One side that certainly couldn't afford to cruise were Chelsea, who had to get a win out of Anderlecht in Brussels but quickly took care of business thanks to Crespo and Richard Carvalho for a 2-0 win which did actually secure a place in the knockout stages for the Blues, leaving Mourinho cocky as ever.

Liverpool had Real Betis headed to Anfield, a 0-0 turned out to be good enough to get them into the next round.

Going down a level, Middlesborough made their way into the UEFA Cup knockout stages, needing only a 0-0 draw in Holland to take care of business. Bolton had a messier time against Vittoria Guamares. Sam Allardyce wound up going mental as he saw his team's worst performance in Europe so far capped by what looked like a late winner by the Portuguese side's Marek Saganowski only for him to throw on his own Portuguese youngster Ricardo Vaz Te who prompty hit an equaliser, keeping Wanderers in second. They'll have to try and get qualification in their last match.

Till next time

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