Football Special Report: Chances of Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League – Part 3
Manchester United is definitely a side that believes in team play and not great individual players. It is true that the Red Devils have produced great players like Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham but it is also true that
all of them, despite being great individual footballers, were also great team players and they used to take the team along with them.
Such players are in almost all the teams in the world. If Manchester United had a Cristiano Ronaldo back then, currently they have a Wayne Rooney. Barcelona have Lionel Messi while Liverpool possess Steven Gerrard. Chelsea
have Didier Drogba, Arsenal have Cesc Fabregas and Real Madrid have Cristiano Ronaldo now.
It is true that every team has this one player who tries to handle the whole team on his own. That one player takes the team with him and plays the best role floating around the whole field to help the team score goals and
win games.
After Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from the English side, many fans thought that Manchester United’s winning era was simply over. Thinking like that was simply obvious, not because Manchester United is not a good team but
because Cristiano Ronaldo was the one who simply overshadowed all other players.
The Red Devils proved themselves once again after the departure of the Portuguese captain; once he was gone, it was the English striker Wayne Rooney who took the role of that “special” player in the team. Even though players
like Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were the ones who supported him throughout his time in Manchester United, he was still the one who kept on making the difference for the team and kept on scoring goals for them.
Wayne Rooney moved up front in a “sole striker” role as most of the strikers were failing to perform for the Red Devils and he took the role perfectly. His ability in front of goal was simply phenomenal and after he started
to score goals for the Red Devils, the whole world just couldn’t resist admitting that Rooney was the new Ronaldo for the former English Premier League Champions.
After Rooney’s “devastating” form, the whole world was given a shut up call from Sir Alex Ferguson. The Scottish manager proved it yet again that he did not need great individual players to help the team win trophies. He
took the team forward till the last date and after Rooney’s amazing 34 goal haul in the Premier League, Manchester United lost the English title by a single point. The title was taken by the Blues, but no one can deny the fact that the Red Devils did put some
competition for the “money spenders” and took the team forward with great team effort.
In the UEFA Champions League, the Red Devils disproved everyone again. Wayne Rooney was the one who helped the team win big games for glory. He helped the English club win the important match against AC Milan and it was Manchester
Untied once again who emerged victorious against the Italian team and the Champions League “experts,” AC Milan.
Later, Manchester United qualified for the semi final match of the UEFA Champions League. It is true that not everyone thought that Alex Ferguson was going to bring his team to that stage without Cristiano Ronaldo. Later,
Wayne Rooney was injured as well and it was the rest of the team that managed to score 3 goals against Bayern Munich at Old Trafford. It was simply luck that didn’t let the English side win the game against the German champions.
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