UNITED KEEP 100% RECORD

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

After a winning start against Fulham, United's next task was the first of two trips down to London against a Charlton side at The Valley now managed by Ian Dowie and who'd started their season with a 3-1 defeat to West Ham. The main disadvantage was that we had to make do without Rooney and Scholes so it was Saha and Giggsy up front, with Darren Fletcher paired up with O'Shea in central midfield and Park at left mid.

As for the match itself, well United had the early chances but it was Charlton who gave us a headache for a large chunk of the match with Fergie's men relieved to see Bryan Hughes's shot go out for a corner. We ended the half on the up but overall it certainly looked like we needed to play the second half at a higher gear, at half time it looked anyone's game.

No such worries in the second half though. In the 49th minute Wes Brown fed Fletcher who took two Charlton defenders out of the picture before slotting the ball in. Charlton certainly still had ideas about an equaliser but then Michael Carrick coming on to make his Premiership debut for United and Solksjaer followed after. Charlton's fate was then sealed. In the 80th minute Brown set up Saha for United's second and to make things even better for United fans in the 90th minute the Carrick sent the ball in for Saha to set up what United fans have been waiting for for ages - an Ole Gunnar Solksjaer goal in competitive football! Maybe our striking problems aren't so bad after all!

That leaves United as the only side with two wins from two and to top it off the Cocky One had egg on his face after his side got beaten 2-1 by Middlesborough at the Riverside, dropping them down to 7th! Portsmouth were the main beneficaries, taking advantage of a 0-0 draw with Man City combined with a weekend win to grab second place with four points and a +3 goal difference.

Elsewhere, in the Champions League, Liverpool wound up playing the second leg of their third preliminary round tie against Maccabi Haifa at the Valari Lobanovski Stadium in Kiev due to worries about the Israel vs Hezbollah conflict. Anyway, after a goalless first half in which the Scousers had the edge Peter Crouch opened the scoring only for Argentine-born striker(though possible future Israeli international)Roberto Colautti to equalise. It wasn't enough to stop Rafa Benitez's crew making the group stages as their 2-1 lead group the first leg still allowed them to go through 3-2 on aggregate.

After that, Arsenal were left to finish off Dinamo Zagreb at the Emirates Stadium but like the Scousers they made a mess of things. Da Silva Eduardo opened the scoring for the Croatian side to give them a fighing chance but luckily for the Gunners, they didn't concede any more goals and Frederik Ljungberg and Matthieu Flamini turned things round on the night to see their side through.

Which is more than can be said for Hearts. Facing AEK Athens at the Spyros Louis Stadium, the Edinburgh side held out on the night only to get buried late on with Julio Cesar opening the scoring for the Greek side with a penalty before Nikos Liberopulos made it two and Cesar finished them off. The Scottish side were left with the consolation of a place in the UEFA Cup.

With the preliminaries out of the way, United now have to go one better than last year and actually make it through the group stage. Well returning to haunt us from that disaster are Benefica, returning to haunt Fergie is Gordon Strachan with his Celtic side(at least Keano's retired though)and making up the numbers are FC Copenhagen. Should we get through this time? In theory yes. In practice we should have got through last time. Could Celtic survive this group? Depends what happens in the Benefica games but they should parachute into the UEFA Cup at least.

Elsewhere, the juiciest matchup of the round has got to be Chelsea vs Barcelona, the Blues butting heads with the Catalans for the third season in a row but other than that Mourinho has nothing to fear with Werder Bremen and Levski Sofia completing the group. Assuming they're on half decent form, the Scousers should survive a combo of PSV Eindoven, Bordeaux and Galatasary. Arsenal have solid opposition in both FC Porto and CSKA Moscow with Hamburg making up the numbers but that won't be anything the Gunners can't handle if they get their act together.

Going down a level Newcastle couldn't put the ball in the net in the 2nd leg of their UEFA Cup 2nd preliminary round tie against FK Ventspils at St James's Park. They didn't allow the Latvian side a shot on goal either though so the Geordies went through to the competition proper 1-0 on aggregate. Gretna are toast though, a 2-2 draw with Derry City at Brandywell left the Scottish minows dumped out to the tune of 7-3.

So, in the first round proper of the UEFA Cup, Newcastle will face Levadia Tallinn(first leg in Tallin - Geordies should make it), Blackburn will face Salzburg(first leg in Salzburg, I don't have a clue how good Salzburg are but my instincts say Blackburn to win), West Ham face Italian small fry Palermo(first leg at Upton Park, workable for the Hammers), Spurs will face Slavia Prague(first leg on Slavia's ground- tough oner for Spurs)Rangers will face Molde(first leg in Norway, Rangers to go through) and Hearts will face Sparta Prague(first leg on Sparta's ground, tough one for the Scots).

Back in the domestic arena, Aberdeen wound up playing D3 side Queens Park at Fir Park in the second round of the CIS Cup. This should have been easy money for the Dons but first the home side took them into extra time after the match remained goalless after 90 minutes and then penalties. An early Darren Mackie miss in the shootout contributed to the Dons' 5-3 demise at that stage.

South of the border, Brentford were also in Cup action, the first round of the Carling Cup to be precise. Up against League Two side Swindon at the Country Ground, Kevin O'Connor and Jo Kuffour put the Bees 2-0 up only for Swindon to pull level thanks to Andrew Nicholas and Paul Evans. The deadlock remained throughout extra time but unlike the Dons, Leroy Rosinoir's side won the shootout 4-3 with goalie Stuart Nelson hitting the winning kick to take them into round 2.

That's it till I get back from France.

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