Olympique Marseille versus Manchester United – UEFA Champions League: Half time report
The match between Marseille and Manchester United started off slowly and then built up in intensity near the mid-way mark. It was Manchester Untied who kicked off the play and immediately tried to test Marseille’s goalkeeper, Stephen Mandana, as Dimitar
Berbatov tried to chip the ball above the French side’s goalkeeper. However, the Bulgarian striker was unsuccessful in his attempt as the referee signaled for a Marseille goal kick.
In the first half of the match at Stade de Valedrome, Manchester United was not as effective as they were expected to be before the start of the encounter since Marseille did well to dominate Sir Alex Ferguson’s team.
Didier Deschamps used a 4-5-1 formation to compete against Manchester United’s 4-3-3 formation. The Frenchman deployed three central midfielders to nullify the three Manchester United central playmakers. This allowed the French champions to restrict Manchester
United’s offensive tendencies and also prompted Marseille to maintain a positional superiority.
The Red Devils found it hard to zip the ball into Berbatov’s feet at various occasions of the first half. The ex-Tottenham striker was tightly marked by Mbia, the Marseille center back, throughout the first half.
Luis http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gabriel-Heinze-c14310 at every given opportunity in the first 45 minutes. The Portuguese winger had the beating of the ex-Real Madrid man and therefore Manchester United played
the former Sporting Lisbon forward, time and again, behind the Argentinean full back.
On the other end of the field, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wayne-Rooney-c36736 found it hard to get involved in the game down the left hand side. The Englishman failed to have a considerable impact on the game as most of his touches and passes went astray.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nemanja-Vidic-c27550 and Christopher Smalling were solid at the back for Manchester United as they seldom allowed Loic Remy or Brandao to sneak in behind them. Most of Marseille’s possession meant that the ball was played in front of Manchester United’s back line,
thus, Ferguson’s men were happy to sit on their laurels and play on the counter attack in the first half.
Marseille’s best player of the first half was probably their forward, Loic Remy. The French forward produced some accurate crosses in the first half but Manchester United dealt with these crosses comfortably and as the half time whistle blew, the score line
remained stagnant at 0-0.
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