CL: United 3 - 2 Celtic
PREVIEW
A journey which Sir Alex Ferguson hopes will end next May in Athens, begins tonight when United take on Celtic in the opening round of the Champion’s League.
‘The battle of Britain,’ a match shrouded in history, pits an in-form United against Scotland’s champions, still struggling to find their feet amongst Europe’s elite.
Both teams start the match with something to prove. Sir Alex has admitted that fear of Euro failure stalks his squad. He said: ‘It has gone beyond desire. Now there is apprehension about games because we know we have to do well.Last year and the two years before that were a terrible disappointment to us.’
United won just one of their six group games and were unable to score in four matches. Celtic were not even involved in the group stage, having gone down to defeat in a qualifying match against Artmedia Bratislava.
United’s European pedigree makes them firm favourites to gain a comfortable victory over their Scottish rivals. The manager, though taking nothing for granted, has identified one of the keys to eventual success.
‘We are expecting a tough game and we will have to work extremely hard for anything we get,’ Sir Alex said. ‘What you’ve got to do with games like this is get rid of the Scotland-England rivalry because that only makes it harder. It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion if you’re not careful because games like this don’t come around very often’
Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes are available again following suspension and Sir Alex will look to the duo plus Ryan Giggs and Louis Saha to shoot United to victory.
‘The thing about last season is that we never scored,’ the United manager, said. ‘We never scored in either game against Villarreal or Lille. That’s four games we didn’t score in. I would never have believed it.
‘The goals are there all right. Rooney and Ronaldo getting older will help. At 20, Rooney will mature and score goals, no question about that. The boy is a fantastic player. And there’s no question about Louis Saha’s quality. We just have to hope that he stays fit. An added bonus will be if Paul Scholes stays fit, because he weighs in with his goals as well.’
Celtic will be relieved that Cristiano Ronaldo is suspended for the match and boss Gordon Strachan is happy to play up his team’s role as underdogs.
‘The one certainty about United is that they have pace everywhere and that is something we will have to address specifically,’ Strachan said. ‘Man-for-man the United squad is better than ours.’
Having lost their best player when Bulgaria’s Stilian Petrov moved to Aston Villa during the recent transfer window, Celtic will employ a defensive, counter-attacking strategy.
United will have to keep an eye on Kenny Miller, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and former Everton central midfielder Thomas Gravesen, who arrived from Real Madrid but should have enough power, speed and variation to emerge victorious.
Destination Athens!
Read: A View From The Other Side : The Lone Gunman
MATCH REPORT…
Manchester United 3 - 2 Celtic
Saha 29, 39 Solskjaer 46 / Vennegoor of Hesselink 21, Nakamura 42
A match which ran barely to script, finished thankfully without United fluffing their lines upon the club’s return to the European stage.
After last season’s disappointment, Sir Alex Ferguson and the Old Trafford crowd must have expected commanding performances from United’s principal leads. But with Rooney strangely off-colour and Ferdinand and Brown looking in need of International Rescue whenever a high ball was aimed at central defence, it was the support acts who ensured United’s Champions League campaign began with three points.
Sir Alex had changed the line-up which saw off Spurs at the weekend restoring Scholes and Rooney to midfield and attack respectively. Silvestre replaced the unlucky Evra at fullback.
However, United’s experience counted for little when a punt upfield by the Celtic keeper Artur Boruc and a mistake by Ferdinand after 21 minutes gifted Celtic forward Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink a run on goal. The Dutchman showed the cool finishing of another famous son of the Netherlands known recently to the United faithful and placed his shot across Van Der Sar to give Celtic an early lead against the run of play
Until Ferdinand’s error, United had probed intelligently and had in Saha, the best player on the pitch. His clever link play and willingness to come deep to claim the ball always looked likely to create an opening. United, with Giggs injured early in the match and without the suspended Ronaldo, played three central midfielders and relied on the forward runs of Neville and Silvestre to bring width to their approach work.
Giggs last contribution before hobbling off clutching his hamstring, was to earn United a generous penalty after being bundled to the ground by Celtic keeper Boruc as he chased a ball into the penalty box. Saha converted with ease in the 29th minute.
By then, any hopes of a United rout had been put to rest. Celtic played with genuine conviction and an excellent chance was wasted by Vennegoor of Hesselink on 36 minutes when more composed finishing would surely have returned the lead to the Scottish champions.
United too were creating chances and punished Celtic’s profligacy three minutes later when some neat inter-passing involving Carrick and Scholes ended with Saha steering his shot beyond the flailing arms of the keeper into the bottom right corner.
United were soon undone again. On 42 minutes, a clumsy challenge by Brown gave Nakamura the chance to score from a fee kick 20 yards from United’s goal. The midfielder was equal to the task, chipping the United wall delightfully to place his shot in the top corner with Edwin Van Der Sar stranded helpslessly on the other side of goal.
Fergie’s half time speech must have been one of his finest because United came out from the break and promptly took the lead. Scholes pounced on a loose Gravesen pass to thread a ball through to Saha. His shot looked goal-bound until the keeper saved. Boruc however, could do nothing about the ricochet which fell invitingly into the path of Solksjaer after Saha had tried to shoot again. The Norweigian, a substitute for Giggs, couldn’t miss and didn’t.
Chances continued to be created, with two wonderful opportunities falling to Wayne Rooney. The Scouse striker for once was not really in the mood and wasted clear invitations to increase United’s lead.
TEAM
United: Van der Sar; Silvestre; Brown; Ferdinand; Neville; Giggs (Solskjaer 32)
Scholes (O’Shea 79); Carrick; Fletcher; Rooney (Richardson 85) ; Saha
POST SCRIPT
Sir Alex: ‘We have a lot of teams who come here, put a bank of five across midfield and sit everyone on the edge of their own box. It wasn’t the cat-and-mouse stuff you normally get in Europe at all. Celtic had a go all night which is typical of the history of that club but in fairness to our lads, some of our attacking play was really good and we could have had more goals. If the concentration is not good at the back, then you’re going to lose goals and you saw that with the first goal and that gave Celtic a lift.’
It’s very unfortunate for us and Ryan. He’s got a hamstring injury and will be out for three weeks. Thankfully we’ll have Cristiano Ronaldo available.’
Gordon Strachan: ‘We thought we could get them on the counter-attack but the biggest problem of the night was, we gave ourselves the problem with unnecessary bad passing. We’re going to think Our passing wasn’t good and no matter what system you’ve got, if you don’t pass the ball well, no system is going to work.
‘The mistakes made were honest ones and they have nothing to be embarrassed of. I thought our so-called ordinary players - the back four - were fantastic and everyone worked as a team. I’m really pleased with the team’s attitude but it’s draining not to have got anything for it.’
