Last night Manchester United took on Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup, 100 days after holding the Champion's League, could United start hitting some form and proving that we don't need Cristiano Ronaldo?
United put out a strong line-up, there were only two changes from monday's Premier League match against Portsmouth - Nani and Neville.
United: Van der Sar; Neville (Brown 76), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Fletcher (Park 60), Anderson (O’Shea 60), Scholes, Nani; Rooney, Tevez
Subs not used: Kuszczak, Gibson, Possebon, Campbell
The match started with a good pace, Zenit had a chance in the first minute but Ferdinand headed the ball away from a descent cross from Anyukov. This was followed by United attacking the other end but the ball in from Neville was poor.
Zenit had another chance to score but Pogrebryak fired Anyukov's cross in over the bar.
At this point I really thought that Zenit were going to score and that was because United weren't defending how they normally defend and that was, in my opinion, down to Nani, last night he was awful but he is only young (which is odd saying because he is a year older than me) and he is still on a learning curve, aren't we all?
Manchester United were whipping in high balls which Zenit could have dealt with all night because Tevez and Rooney aren't the highest of players.
Tevez was absolutly fantastic last night, if he lost the ball he would get up and win it back and that is what he is like every single match and I hope that United sign him on a long deal.
23 minutes in and I and a load of Zenit fans thought that they had scored when Dominguez freekick hit came of the side and hit the back of the net.
Rooney had a fantastic chance but the ball got stuck under his foot and by the time he got his shot away the goalie was able to save it.
It was looking that it we were going into half time 0-0 but Neville gave away a corner in stoppage time, he could have left it but to be fair on him, he didn't no if someone was behind him or not. From this corner United didn't deal with it which ended in a Zenit St Petersburg goal and that also ended with a Scholes yellow card, which will become significant later, did I just give it away?
Second half and we needed to improve our performance and step up a gear.
Arshavin came on an nearly scored with his first touch but Ferdinand was there to defend it.
Rooney had a shot which was just over the bar, Zenit had a chance which was sweetly struck by Tymoshchuck, which was punched away by Van Der Sar.
United were about to make two substitutions but before that, there was a moment of brilliance by Zenit's Danny Alves and he scored to make it 2-0.
I think that this goal could have definetly been prevented, Im not taking anything away from Alves but he was allowed to run along way and should really have been tackled.
59 minutes in and O'Shea and Park came on, which did make a difference, United stepped up a gear and looked like scoring, O'Shea had a shot which was saved by the goalkeeper, the rebound came to Park and that was also saved by the goalie. Tevez had a shot which was just over the bar, there was a little to much venom.
O'Shea had another shot which ended in a corner to United, the corner led to Scholes having a shot which was over.
72 minutes in and United had a corner, just like Zenit's first goal, they didn't deal with it and Tevez laid off a pass to Vidic and Vidic scored.
United had definetly improved and I thought that we could possibly sneak another goal and take the match into extra time, but with United throwing players forward, we were short at the back and Alves should have put Zenit 3-1 up, but we were still in it.
89 minutes and I couldn't believe what Paul Scholes did, Scholes put the ball into the back of the net, but with a difference, with his hand. Do you remember Maradona's goal against England? It was far more obvious than that, and that isn't even the point, it's cheating.
Scholes was already on a yellow and he deserved another yellow, which he got and in my opinion, he was rightly sent off, this now means that Scholes will miss Champion's League games and probably the hardest of them, we are starting at Villareal.
The match finished Manchester United 1-2 Zenit St Petersburg.
Overall, I think that we had a fantastic fifteen minutes and that was really it, Zenit deserved to win it and tonight proved yet again that we need a striker that will stay up the pitch and score goals.
We now have 14 days until United play Liverpool and I am really hoping that we get a striker in the next few games.
Our next three games are:
Liverpool (Away)
Villareal (Home)
Chelsea (Away)
Written by Shuggo in
Match Review,
UEFA Super Cup
Manchester United v Zenit St Petersburg, UEFA Super Cup Review
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Tough fixtures coming up ;)