If Navy Seals had stormed my home last week Darron Gibson would have been the first person I used as a human shield. What a difference a week makes. We have long said that United tend to make us suffer, but Fergie’s team-sheet for this game was nothing short of terrifying. Anyone who rocked up to Old Trafford expecting a light evening’s entertainment would have been in for a rude shock. Fortunately, the surprises were all positive in the end.
Some people call it mettle, others call it guts, the Spanish say cojones. Whatever it is, Sir Alex Ferguson has got a massive pair of them. United were dire on Sunday, putting in the kind of performance at the Emirates that makes you want to rip off your own leg just so you can hit yourself on the head with your shin bone.
It looked as though the whole season was about to fracture in the space of a few days and this second leg started to seem like much less of a formality. So whilst my fears spent four days expanding they nearly exploded when I saw the name Darron Gibson in the eleven for a European Cup Semi-Final.
As said in the last piece, memories of Leverkeusen loom large in these parts and we had put out a side well capable of losing. Perhaps this is one the reasons I am so addicted to this football club. It is never a steady stroll with Manchester United, we are always exposed to the full range of the emotional journey. I can think of no other club with such a capacity for drama and romance.
There was no love lost between Barca and Real in the other semi and alas this game was not the most sportsmanlike in history either. It would have been more understandable if this tie were on a knife-edge but, really, it was over after half an hour. We must realistically expect Barcelona to be slightly better than Schalke were.
Rationally, Antonio Valenica surely must be a first pick for all remaining big games. I am absolutely delighted for him scoring the opener. He is, by all accounts, a lovely bloke and nobody deserved that goal more that he did.
Five minutes before kick-off I was apoplectic yet five minutes after the final whistle I could do no more than echo the sentiments of the poet Wayne Rooney, “how wrong was I?” Now, let’s unleash Gibson et al on Chelsea and sort out this league title too.
VDS, Rafael, Smalling, Evans, O’Shea, Scholes, Gibson, Anderson, Nani, Valencia, Berbatov
0 comments:
Post a Comment