Neuer stars but Manchester United run riot in Gelsenkirchen
Neuer stars but Manchester United run riot in Gelsenkirchen
Schalke 0 Manchester United 2 (Giggs 67, Rooney 69)
Manchester United will surely have only one regret in the build-up to next week’s second leg against Schalke 04 at Old Trafford. They could have easily been five or six goals to the good, and it would have been, if it weren’t for a combination of Manuel Neuer’s brilliance coupled with some lackadaisical finishing from the United players. Still, though, in Gelsenkirchen last night, Manchester United were simply outstanding.
Controlling two-thirds of possession, at times the play leading to the intricate, surgical carving-open of the Schalke defence was Barcelona-esque. Considering the manner in which the Premier League leaders have gotten to where they are this season, the performance they put in was easily one of the most convincing in the last nine months or so. The likes of Javier Hernandez and Ryan Giggs had enough chances to bury hat-tricks, while Park ji-Sung and Fábio also would have managed to get their names on the scoresheet if their finishing had been just a little better.
Rio Ferdinand tweeted after the game (amidst the war he’s waging against the former X-Factor talent judge Piers Morgan) ‘Giggsy and Carrick were pulling the strings… love sitting back and watching sometimes’, which says it all. Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were rarely under pressure, while Edwin van der Sar, who has, in very timely fashion, said he might just continue on for another season, only had a couple of long-range shots with which to dirty his gloves.
But it was all happening on the opposite side of the field. Wayne Rooney was majestic, spraying pass after pass like he does with his swearing. Perhaps it’s what Paul Scholes is instilling into the younger players in the squad, with Luis Valencia being the main benefactor of Rooney’s pin-point crossfield balls. The Ecuadorian too was playing out of his skin, justifying his selection ahead of Nani despite the latter being directly involved in nearly thirty of United’s goals this season.
Schalke were dominant against Internazionale in the quarter-finals because the Italians were lacking width, but this time, the same men who tormented the holders; Jefferson Farfán, Jose Jurado, and Atsuto Uchida, were all kept very, very quiet. Instead, the tables were turned and the flanks were being utterly controlled by the visitors. For so long, Manchester United have had trouble finding a suitable candidate for the right-back slot. Gary Neville hadn’t been on top form for a while, while the likes of John O’Shea, Wes Brown and even Owen Hargreaves had extended runs in the side filling in in that position. Sir Alex Ferguson must be delighted that he now has two astonishingly capable Brazilians, Fábio and Rafael, vying for that one spot. Rafael was absent tonight, but Fábio came in and didn’t look out of place for even a second.
We might be preparing our appetites for a football feast at the Santiago Bernabéu tonight, but Sir Alex will be taking down notes intently. One semi-final has been put to bed, and it will be either Real Madrid or Barcelona who face United for the trophy at Wembley in May.
