UEFA Champions League Semifinal (2nd Leg): Manchester United vs. Schalke' 04. 2-1 - First Half Report
Manchester United has all but booked a date with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38605 at Wembley for the UEFA Champions League Final.
If a 2-0 lead from the first leg was not enough, the half time score line at Old Trafford is evidence of the fact that unless Schalke pulls off a miraculous second half performance, scoring 4 goals while conceding none, United are home and dry in the final.
Manchester United boss has exhibited a gambling strategy by making 9 changes to the starting lineup from that in the 1st leg, playing his reserve team. Ferguson had confidence in his second string side to get the job done.
Surely, United’s veteran manager has made this gamble keeping in mind the title-deciding fixture against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 on Sunday, May 8th. Hence, he needs to rest his players to ensure that the Premier League silverware comes to Old Trafford.
The starting lineup for United was without http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michael-Carrick-c25282 and Emmanuel Vidic.
However, the Red Devils still managed to put out a strong starting eleven.
United’s defence was impressive with Edwin Van der Sar keeping his place in the goal, Rafael Da Silva stepping in for his twin brother at the right flank, Chris Smalling and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jonny-Evans-c19085 taking the centre-back positions and John O'Shea deployed at the left
flank.
Darron Gibson, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dimitar-Berbatov-c11254 and Nani were handling United’s offensive play.
Manchester United started on the front foot with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nani-c27299 involved in two back-to-back attacks in the opening minutes.
First he tried to play a threaded through ball to Berbatov but it was blocked midway. He got back on the ball from the rebound and danced his way down the flank, beating two defenders on his way, but his second cross was intercepted as well.
Schalke continued to believe they can achieve the impossible, knowing well that scoring two goals and conceding none at Old Trafford was a formidable task.
Unfortunately for the German side, their resilience was almost broken as United scored a goal to make it 3-0 on aggregate.
Schakle gave away the ball cheaply and Manchester United made full use of it. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Darron-Gibson-c10368 got hold of the ball and picked out Antonio Valencia on the edge of the penalty area. The Ecuadorian made his way into the box, firing the ball past the diving Manuel
Neuer.
There was a sense of relief on Sir Alex Ferguson’s face as fielding a weaker side may have come back to haunt him, had it gone wrong.
Ferguson certainly started to feel much better and was extremely delighted minutes later as United made it 2-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate.
This time Darron Gibson netted the goal. He was played a neat lay off ball form the bye-line and Gibson was able to wrap his foot around it, striking an excellent shot that found the back of the net. However, Neuer was to be blamed for it since the ball
deflected off him and went into the goal.
Schalke did make the game a bit interesting by getting a goal back.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chris-c9006 Smalling was the man at fault as he gave away the ball carelessly at the edge of the penalty area. Jose Manuel Jurado got hold of the ball and smashed it into the back of the net.
As the half time whistle blew, the score board read 2-1. Although, the Bundesliga outfit was able to score a goal, they still need three more goals to go through.
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