UEFA Champions League Match Report: Manchester United vs Benfica – Part 1
Manchester United played host to Benfica in the UEFA Champions League at Old Trafford and looked to pick up all three points, which would help them ensure their progress from the group stages of the tournament.
United had not been performing too well, despite having a brilliant start to the season and hence seemed to be very shaky going into the game.
The fact that no Portuguese team had managed to beat United in the past was working in the Red Devils favour, who were brimming with confidence, prior to the start of their game.
Things soon took a toll for the worst for Manchester United, as the match started with the visitors taking the game to the Premier League side.
After applying some early pressure, it took only three minutes for Benfica to score the opening goal of the game. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Axel-Witsel-c7029 and Aimar played some brilliant passes amongst each other, before Nicolas Gaitan went on to whip in a cross which was knocked over
the goal line by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Phil-Jones-c29903. In doing so, the defender scored an own goal and gave Benifca a very early lead in the game.
In the 6th minute, Benfica came close to scoring another goal. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Bruno-c8098 Cesar received a corner kick and went on to smack a shot towards the United goal. His effort was well hit, but sailed across the United goal.
In the 30th minute of the game, Manchester United went on to level the proceedings of the game.
Ashley Young went on to find http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nani-c27299, who curled in a brilliant cross for Berbatov. The out of favour striker met the delivery of the ball with precision and went on to nod the ball into the back of the net.
In the 32nd minute, Young was forced into a great position with which to give United the lead in the game. However, the Benfica keeper managed to rush of his line just in time to prevent the winger from capitalizing on the situation as he forced
him to push his shot wide of the mark.
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