From the match, “Manchester United” - “Celtic” everyone was waiting for real British football - uncompromising, spectacular and productive. They waited.
The island press, as usual, licked the topic of the confrontation between English and Scottish clubs to a brilliance, awarding the match with the pathos sign “Battle for Britain”. The reasons were: firstly, Manchester and Celtic have never met in official matches; secondly, both clubs are now leading in their championships. In addition, the current mentor of Celtic Gordon Strakan played under Sir Alex Ferguson in Aberdeen and Manchester United, which both were not completely satisfied by criticizing each other in autobiographies. The real interest in the match was based not on personal scores, but on an impressive result, which left questions about the game starting the “MJ” in the Premier League: four wins in four matches. In contrast to this - the last four matches in the Champions League, which Ferguson wards held last fall very badly - not a single victory and just one goal scored.
... The first twenty minutes were cautious. Only the forward of Manchester United Louis Saha, who delivered two dangerous blows, and Rio Ferdinand, twice mistaken in fairly simple situations, were active. As a result, Ferdinand “outstripped” Saa - after his next mistake, the newly acquired Celtic striker Vennoyor of Hesselink struck van der Sara with a low shot. Before the game, Scottish club midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura said that “long casts ahead on Hesselinka is not a game to meddle with in the League.” However, the partners not only did not heed his words, but also simplified this scheme to the limit: goalkeeper Arthur Boruts gave the assist pass to Hesselink. Ten minutes later, the Celtic goalkeeper organized a goal into his own net, having not had time to remove his hands from the path of Ryan Giggs who threw himself the ball. The penalty was as ridiculous as obvious. It was sold by the very same Louis Saha, who played for himself and for that guy - Wayne Rooney, who didn’t get everything that evening.
An unobvious intrigue of the first half was the confrontation between defensive midfielders Carrick and Gravesen - new characters in the positions that determine the game. Carrick was outwardly unhurried, but extremely reliable in the selection, after which Scholes skipped ahead, and he attacked only at the second pace. Gravesen thoroughly spoiled football karma in Real Madrid - he couldn’t find either Nakamura or Yaroshik and lost the martial arts over and over, one of which led to the second goal of Manchester United. The Dane was robbed by Carrick, who pushed the ball further to Scholes, who sent him Saha - to score. The striker of the French national team coped brilliantly with his business, but three minutes later he was too lazy to jump in the wall built before Nakamura’s shot from the penalty area. The ball flew at the eye level of the surprised van der Sarah and calmly landed in the net. The teams left for the break, having two goals each.
The reaction of the coaches to the development of events was British in a good way: with a score of 1: 1 after a Giggs injury, Sir Alex Ferguson released the third striker, Ole Gunnar Sulscher, king of the bench. Strakan matured for a decent response in the middle of the second half - he sent to help the lanky Hesselink hustling Kenny Miller (the hero of the match Lithuania - Scotland) and barely healed the injury Sean Maloney. However, the English trump beat two Scottish: two minutes after the break after another mistake Gravesen Solscher scored a goal. 3: 2 - and in the remaining time the game came under the complete control of the players of Manchester United, who attacked and did not score. The Celtic snapped at Gravesen, but van der Sar neutralized the Danes' only useful action. Saha could have made a hat-trick, but Borutz pulled his header and the shot of the Telfer defender on his own goal, showing some people the level of the goalkeeper of the national team.
Undoubtedly, Manchester United won in the class - the Saa class, which naturally embodied the advantage of scoring chances in goals, in the Carrick class, which worked out a substantial part of the fabulous transfer amount. But the initial mood of both teams to win turned the original difference in the class not into a demonstration of unconditional superiority, but into a game requiring convincing proof. And she took place. After the match, Ferguson voiced her obvious advantage: “It was a pleasure to watch the Celtic game. This is not cat and mouse typical of the Champions League, it's real football. ” Well, the old man is right - we are waiting for the return match at Celtic Park on November 21.