Manchester United Came On Top at Old Trafford: Football News
Chelsea has long aspired to the Champions' League crown, an aspiration which has become something of an obsession for Roman Abramovich, Chelsea’s owner. His dreams were dashed again by an English team.
The first leg went Manchester United’s way with a score line of 1-0. They won the second leg as well by 2-1, thus winning the tie on an aggregate of 3-1.
Carlo Ancelotti has not been happy with the current Chelsea squad and is reluctant in owning it. He might not get another chance as he is likely to be fired. Another failure at the European stage will not sit well with Abramovich,
who has fired people like Jose Mourinho and Luiz Felipe Scolari in the past.
Everything went United's way, who took the lead in the game through Javier Hernandez. Didier Drogba did pull a goal back soon afterwards when Ramires was shown a red card. However, Park Ji-Sung responded within a minute to win
the match for his side. Manchester United also had a goal disallowed for marginal offside. United outclassed Chelsea once again and booked their berth in the semi final.
Before this match, Carlo Ancelotti was unsure about the inclusion of Fernando Torres in the starting line-up. However, the Spaniard did get his place as Didier Drogba was kept on the bench. Torres looked shaky in front of the
goal and was in no position to threaten Manchester's defence. He was substituted after half time.
Ancelotti also kept John Mikel Obi on the bench as Ramires made his way into the starting line-up. This was another poor decision as Ramires broke under pressure and picked up two yellow cards in quick succession.
Sir Alex Ferguson rested some of his players for the game against Manchester City on the weekend. Antonio Valencia was kept as a substitute, leaving a place for Park Ji-Sung in the starting XI. Hernandez took the place of Dimitar
Berbatov. Wes Brown was also constrained to the bench. Nevertheless, these were some tough decisions but they paid off in the end as both the scorers for United were the unlikely starters in the game.
The combination of Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Edwin van der Sar worked well for Manchester United. The first goal came in the closing minutes of first half when Ryan Giggs made a brilliant run from the right and fired a low
cross towards the centre of six-yard box. Hernandez was present on the other end and he did not miss.
The introduction of Drogba, in the second half, seemed to change the visitors' fortune. They looked more potent in attack and were more enthusiastic. Everything went black for the Blues when Ramires was shown a red with 20 minutes
still on the clock. However, Drogba refused to give scoring seven minutes later. In the end, United managed to hold on to their lead and will play either Inter Milan or Schalke in the semi-finals of the tournament.