Top ten clashes of 2010 – Part 1
In 2010, we saw some of the most scintillating football played all over the globe. The World Cup in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011 put up a highly skilful display of football to be crowned World Champions for the first time
ever.
Bettor.com has come up with 10 matches we believe were too good to be missed. Here is the list:
10. Arsenal 1 – 3 Manchester United
How strange it feels now to say that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cristiano-Ronaldo-c9629, who left the club in the summer for Real Madrid.
Rooney was yet again the architect of Manchester United’s away win over Arsenal. For most part of the season, Rooney played on the shoulder of the last defender. However, for this game, he dropped into midfield quite a bit and allowed the likes of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nani-c27299 and
Park to make runs behind the defence.
The tactics paid dividends as Rooney set up the goals and Arsenal completely failed to cope with the former Everton man’s movement.
9. Inter 3 – 1 Chelsea (aggregate)
May be Jose Mourinho knew too much about the Chelsea side but the real reason behind Inter’s aggregate win was the tactical astuteness of the Portuguese. He out-thought Carlo Ancelotti while his team out-played Chelsea on the pitch.
Mourinho started the game with a 4-3-1-2 formation and after going 2-1 up, he switched back to his usual 4-2-3-1 to control the game more from the middle of the park and stop Chelsea full backs from parading forwards.
At Stamford Bridge http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wesley-Sneijder-c36799 dictated the pace of the game and ran the show from the middle of the park. He later set up Samuel Eto’o to score
a superb goal to send Inter through.
8. Manchester United 1 – 2 http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786
Carlo Ancelotti sprung a real surprise when he benched his star man http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Florent-Malouda-c13838 on the wings but both of them played closer to Anelka rather than the
touchline.
Chelsea dominated possession of the ball and scored via a clever back flick from Joe Cole. Although United pressed higher up the pitch in the second half, they failed to match the passing ability of their opposition.
Anelka was later replaced by Didier Drogba, who created plenty of chances after coming on and eventually scored the crucial second goal.
7. Barcelona 6 – 3 Arsenal
It was a clash between two teams who play the beautiful game in the most beautiful manner. The battle in the first leg was not about what the two teams did with the ball; infact, it was what they did without it. Barcelona came to the Emirates and pressed
higher up the pitch and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Seydou-Keita-c33177 pushed up to a left-wing position.
Barcelona piled immense pressure on the home side and created many chances and had it not been for Almunia, Arsenal could have found themselves go more than just a couple of goals down. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Zlatan-Ibrahimovic-c38029 scored two sensational goals to give Barcelona a
two-goal cushion. However, Arsenal struck back through Walcott and the first leg ended 2-2.
The second leg was not about Arsenal or Barcelona; it was about http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 who struck a scintillating first half hat-trick to send Arsenal packing. Messi looked like a player from a different planet as Arsenal defence had no answer to the Argentinean’s
dribbling, pace and finishing. He scored all four goals for Barcelona in their emphatic 4-1 triumph at camp Nou.
Continued in Part 2…
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