English Premier League – Fulltime Review: Manchester United versus West Bromwich Albion
Manchester United played out an exciting match against West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford. The match started off with Sir Alex Ferguson pulling off one of his famous selection decisions as Wayne Rooney was left on the substitute’s
bench for the Red Devils from the start of the match. Ferguson played his conventional 4-4-2 formation with the likes of Michael Carrick and Anderson Da Silva in central midfield whereas Ryan Giggs and Luis Nani took up their usual spots on the left and right
wings respectively for Manchester United.
At the back, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand resumed their long standing center back partnership whilst Patrice Evra was once again deployed by United at the left back berth. At the right back spot, Ferguson preferred Rafael Da
Silva instead of Gary Neville and John O’Shea. Up front, Javier Hernandez and Dimitar Berbatov were chosen by Sir Alex as his two strikers. In goal for the former champions of England was the ex-Dutch international captain, Edwin Van Der Sar.
United started off the game brightly as they got their first goal of the match within the first five minutes of the first half. It was Hernandez who got United’s opener after Nani’s free kick was punched directly into the Mexican
striker’s path by Scott Carson inside the West Bromwich Albion goal. Manchester United controlled possession after their first goal and fashioned many chances for themselves, it turned out to be an easy first twenty minutes for United as they kept control
of the match but they missed many opportunities especially through Dimitar Berbatov to add to their one goal advantage.
Finally, it was Nani for the Red Devils who combined brilliantly with Berbatov to give United a two goal cushion right before the first half ended; it was a magnificent one-two pass between the two players as Nani finished off
the move for his side. United suffered their first blow of the night as they had to substitute Ryan Giggs at the end of the first half due to a recurrence of his hamstring injury. The Welshman was replaced by the young midfielder, Darren Gibson from the United
bench.
At the end of first half, United were cruising with a two goal lead but all of that changed surprisingly in the second half as right at the start of the second half, Anderson gave away a cheap free kick to West Bromwich Albion
at the right side of his team’s penalty area. West Brom capitalized on this chance and pulled a goal back as the whipped in set piece got deflected thrice before finding its way into the back of the net. The goal was awarded to West Brom’s defender, Jonas
Olsson, who got the last touch on the ball to put it over the goal-line.
West Brom grew in confidence as a result of this goal and got their equalizer quickly in the 55th minute of the match as Van Der Sar fumbled a ball in from the wing in front of his own goal. The Dutchman’s mistake gave
a chance to West Bromwich’s midfielder, Somen Tchoyi to pounce on the ball and thus in doing so, the African brought his team on parity with the English giants. After the goal, West Brom adopted a defensive strategy while United pushed on to get the winner.
As a consequence, the final thirty minutes of the match turned out to be quite tough for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side which couldn’t find the breakthrough that they wanted. At the final whistle, the score lay bare at two all as United
drew their third match in a row in the English Premier League but all of the credit should go to the Baggies who gave it their all to gain a point at the Theatre of dreams, especially after going two goals down.
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