CL Quarter - United 2 - 1 Chelsea

Woah! I am gooooosed after that game. Where to start?

Build-up

Prior to the game I was pretty nervous and wasn't really sure what to expect. I mean at the end of the day Chelsea came to OT and had NOTHING to lose. We can be quite vulnerable when we only have to defend and not win. When we heard the team we were pleasantly surprised that we hadn't gone for 4-5-1 & opted for an attacking 4-4-2. No Valencia seemed odd (I'll write a separate post about him soon) and no Rafael which given his tenacity in games such as this probably worked in our favour.

Overview

I hate writing match reports. Theres enough of them out there so I'm not gonna go on about every key issue and an attack-by-attack breakdown but instead concentrate on a few observations that I feel need mentioning.

First of all, we weren't as good as everybody is making out. We started shockingly. In the first 15-20 mins they had several chances and everyone was on edge. We did improve and obviously after the first goal we had more space as Chelsea had to really attack given they needed 2 goals but this was by no means a vintage performance. We were better than them though and this post is not intended to be entirely negative.

Torres

I feel I should first of all mention Chelsea, or more specifically Torres. As much as I hate everything about him from snubbing us several years ago (rumours), to playing for Liverpool, his constant joker card against Vidic and lack of respect he showed as a human regarding his over-expensive move to Chelsea, he is still a phenomenal player. Were constantly surrounded by irony and it seems fitting his best game for over a year was against Chelsea this season! Either way I have no idea what is wrong with him at Chelsea. Is his misses unhappy she's not near Liverpool airport to catch the daily 13:25 EasyJet back home to Madrid anymore? Is he getting bullied from all his new over-paid teammates? Is it London life? Either way the fact he was as effective as a split condom gives me extreme pleasure. I do believe next season he'll come good - form is temporary, class is permanent (in-step señor Rooney) but it's funny how, for once, us & Liverpool can be UNITED in hating a player. Whether they'll be singing "you scouse b******" is another question.

Fans

A well known public secret in Football goes something the lines of:

Our away support is the best in the league.

Our home support is the worst. Seriously, theres 75,000 of us and we can't generate enough noise to spur on a team challenging for the treble? Disgusting. Where we sit (North stand below Quadrant near the Stretford End) were consistently getting dirty looks for moaning, shouting, questioning, cheering the team from people around us - especially a few rows down from us. We pay over a thousand quid a year inc. travel, booze & tickets to the game etc. to watch United just at home and we can't voice our opinion without being looked down on? Nuff' said and until United fans accept OT is intended for fans to voice opinions it won't change.

Tonight we were louder than usual, especially in the 2nd half, but not that great. If were to go on and win something this year we need the 12th man to find its cojones and stand-up! COME ON REDS!

Goals

2 for us, 1 for them. 

CORRECTION.

3 for us, 1 for them. 

What an absolute shocking decision to disallow that first goal! Punishing Hernandez for being the quickest player in the world. Unbelievable movement and a great cheeky little header to put it past Cech. It's a good job it didn't matter because if it did Fergie would have probably been banned until 2013 for his expected post-match comments.

1-0. Once again we rely on a medical sensation called Ryan Giggs. Ashley Cole seemed to be in dreamland, probably thinking about where his private life went wrong, whilst Giggs nipped in past him & slotted a perfectly weighted ball across the box for the Little Pea to ALMOST miss & hit the roof of the net from 25cm out.

1-1. I was dissapointed to concede. Rooney wussed out against Essien on the half-way and our defence was having a fag break for Drogba to nip in and drill one home. I guess we wouldn't be United if we did things the simple way!

2-1. The second goal was a typical school boy error on Chelseas part & great build-up on ours. When your 5yrs old, playing in pissing down freezing cold weather on sunday mornings you get told. "Your most vulnerable when you've just scored!" 20 seconds after kick-off and were back on top! Once again Giggs was the architect. Square to Parky who controlled superbly on his chest and drilled past Cech. Boom. I went mental! OPTA fact - Giggs has assisted our last 4 CL games. Follow OPTA on Twitter for great little footy facts!

I would write about Hernandez here as I was in awe of his work-rate and contribution to the team as a whole but I feel his contribution deserves it's own post within the next week.

Rooney

I posted a similar thing after the first game but you can't not talk about him. 
I don't know where we stand with Rooney. He was (is) my idol. The saga in October felt like a kick in the nads. He hung us out to dry, questioned the most successful manager in history and disrespected his teammates. In any other industry, regardless of ability, he'd be out the door. However, he signed a new contract and here we are. Tonight he was sensational. Granted he pooed out for their goal against Essien and didn't play any significant part in the goals BUT work-rate, passion, aggression, vision & the desire to win combined with superior natural ability shows that he is by far and out our best player. He works so well with Hernandez who plays on the last man so Rooney can flirt with anyone, anywhere on the pitch, get on the ball and make us tick. "Scholesque" you may call it. Either way tonight he proved that for all his tantrums, public smoking, pissing in the street, being a general badLAD we are not the same without him. His form, and ability to keep his gob shut in-front of cameras, could be the difference come what May.

Final word

Overall, tonight was what it was. We were the better team against a poor Chelsea side that were lucky to have even 10 men on the pitch come the final whistle.

We've set up a date with either Inter or Schalke & I really fancy our chances to get to Wembley. We've hit better form at the right time and still aren't even in 4th gear. The futures bright(er) and if we win our next 4 games - City (FA Cup), Newcastle, Everton, Schalke* (CL), I truly fancy our chances for the treble. We'd enter the Anrsenal game just needing 4 wins (and if we beat them we'd effecively have won the league), The FA Cup would be ours to lose & as for the CL? We'd take an away win back to OT and if we went through, learn our fate for the final - either Barca/Real*. I just think for everything thats happened, a one-on-one in the UK vs one of the Spanish teams we could really do them! I'm sticking my neck on the line with this.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Last March we were 2 minutes away from getting a result away at Bayern & our entire season fell apart within seconds. 

This season has been flat, slow and we've cruised to where we are. It's as though we've been on pause for a year and are picking up where we left of last year in Munich. How fitting we pick up at the point we nose-dived last season. Is fate on the horizon?