UNITED BLAZE INTO CARLING SEMIS

 

The last time we reached the Carling Cup quarter finals was in 05/06. Back then we were up against Birmingham at St Andrews. It was what was then an all-Premiership tie with Brum coached by Steve Bruce, one of the 90s United legends who have gone into management. The first half proved to be a pretty even affair but no goals were scored. Louis Saha then opened the scoring for United immediately in the second half before setting up Park for what was his first ever goal for United. Saha grabbed a second which finished the game off although Brum did pull one back through Jiri Jorosik. Overall though, a mix of first teamers and reserves saw off a Premiership first team. Not bad.

This time round, we're facing Blackburn and that's a team we definately have some Carling Cup history with. Most recently it was in the 05/06 semis. Facing Fergie was a second United 90s legend in the form of Mark Hughes. The first leg was at Ewood Park, not the easiest of places to get a result but we got a 1-1 draw which was good enough to work with. The second leg at Old Trafford was where we managed to win the tie though, coming up with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford to secure a spot in the final at the Millenium Stadium. That was the second time this decade that we faced Blackburn in the Carling Cup semis, and both times out we did the business.

And now it was "here we go again". OK, so Blackburn were only at Old Trafford for a Carling Cup quarter final this time around but again, we were up against another former 90s Red, this time, Paul Ince, like Sparker, a victim of the clearout of '95. We'd already seen them off in the Premiership this season and Rovers weren't currently in the best of shape. That still made this the tie of the round by my reckoning, even if we were never going to put out our strngest XI. We went 4-5-1. Foster in goal, Neville left back and captain, O'Shea and Evans in central defence. Nani right mid, Gibson, Posebon and Anderson centre mid, Giggsy left mid and Tevez up front.

Well credit to Rovers, they went on the attack early on, forcing United's reserves goalie to make a quality save and we survived the resulting corner. United's attackers soon started working on a response and Blackburn were left having to clear the ball off the line. The next opportunity came about when United were given a freekick in the 35th minute. Giggsy sent it over, found the head of Tevez and United were ahead. We were in no mood for mercy after that and United went two up in the 40th minute when Tevez and Nani played a 1-2 and our 'other' Portuguese star was the one to put it in the net. Seemingly job done already unless Incey could find a miracle.

United picked up where we left off in the second half and while our initial burst looked to fade Blackburn fast breaked with a long ball from Roque Santa Cruz leaving United's defence in a mess in the 48th minute, allowing Benni McCarthy to run on and pull one back. It wasn't long before United finished the game off though. First Tevez was brought down in the 51st minute and slotted the ball in from the spot, then in the 54th minute the Rovers defence got ripped apart and Anderson set up Tevez to complete his hat-trick. It was game over at that point but Blackburn weren't quite done yet, McCarthy set Matt Derbyshire up in the 84th minute to pull another goal back before Derbyshire set up McCarthy in injury time for the South African's second goal of the game and even then there was time for United to have the last word, Anderson lobbing the ball to Tevez for the Argie's 4th.

Elsewhere, Stoke were beaten 1-0 by Championship Derby at the Britannia Stadium to garuntee one non-Premiership presence in the semis however the real mugs of the round were Arsenal, who another Championship side, Burnley beat 2-0 at Turf Moor. It was left to Spurs to get a degree of honour bck for the Premiership, and so Watford found themselves beaten 2-1 at Vicarage Road despite Harry Redknapp's side having to come back from behind. That left two Premiership and two Championship sides in the semi, could there be a non-Premiership presence in the Carling Cup final this year? After the insanity of last year's FA Cup final, who knows?

In the meantime, the semis have yet to be played and United are up against Championship Derby with the first leg at Pride Park. Well even in Derby's recent spells in the Premiership they never looked like posing a threat to us and now they're in the lower half of the Championship, what have they got? Their biggest name seems to be Robbie Savage but the only possible concern with him is that he might injure our guys! Nope, really we should be looking to put this tie to bed in the first leg, even if we play our reserves, this looks to be a pretty solid unit and one way or another, we are surely going to Wembley. We'll probably win both legs of this tie.

In the meantime, the UEFA Cup group stages were continuing. In Group E, Portsmouth were beaten 3-2 by Wolfsburg at the Vokswagon Arena(that leaves Pompey 4th in the group). Tony Adams team are the only Premiership side that look like they'll be knocked out in the group stage. In Group D Spurs were given the night off but still remain 2nd in the group. In Group F, Villa were beaten 2-1 by MSK Zilna at Villa Park(however they remain 2nd in the group). In Group A Man City had a dullsville 0-0 draw with Paris St Germain(that still leaves them top of the group though). Overall, not a bad performance by Premiership teams in the UEFA Cup so far.

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