Last year's Champions League visit to Lisbon ended ingloriously: a loss in one ball and a relegation from a group tournament with a miss even in the UEFA Cup. Recent home realities also did not please: a defeat from Arsenal and a draw with Reading forced Sir Alex Ferguson to be honored with the starting lineup. The head coach seems to have finally become a hostage to the times of the club’s greatness, stubbornly wanting to see the new Roy Keane in the middle of the field. This time, he detached there already two oporniki - Carrick and O'Shea. Ferguson lacked the usual Giggs in the position of the left insider - as a result, Rooney was sent to the place of the injured Welshman. His game eventually became another headache for Ferguson, but the result - the first away victory in the League in the last three years - was achieved.
The debut of the match revealed the calm of the hosts and the hidden clutter in the midfield of the guests - within 10 minutes, Scholes and Carrick saw the yellow cards. Rooney, who grew a red beard, now and then rolled back to his own penalty box, fighting for the ball with the right-back of the hosts Alcides. Dangerous moments of the first half of the half boiled down to two long-range shots in both directions by finalists of the last European Championship Karagunis and Cristiano Ronaldo. The latter at home was booed especially vehemently, although the Portuguese played obviously better than anyone in this match, and in the first half was completely the only notable player of Manchester United. However, not only he - Nemanja Vidic attracted attention to himself, Ferguson paired with Ferdinand instead of the "problem" Brown. It turned out - it was for soap: in the 27th minute, the Serb, apparently baffled by the usual red-white colors of his rivals, presented the ball to the Portuguese attack, which ended with a dangerous shot by Nun Gomes against the bar.
The two-sided first half was nevertheless presented to Benfica as a favorite: she controlled the ball confidently, and the only real threat from the guests were passages and feints to Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese did a lot - apparently, the skills of the Lisbon derby “Sporting” - “Benfica” affected when the child prodigy defended the colors of white and green. And in the 60th minute, the territorial advantage of the hosts was overturned by one Franco-Portuguese effort: Ronaldo's next breakthrough with a simple feint and a great shot embodied Louis Saa into the goal. At a press conference, usually restrained in his relations with the Frenchman, Ferguson finally melted away: “It was a magnificent, incomprehensible blow!”, For once, having paid tribute to the real creator of the club’s last victories.
17 minutes after the goal, Saa nearly made a double, breaking his head next to the post from Carrick's canopy. Carrick himself was remembered perhaps by a long, harmless shot in the hands of the goalkeeper, but even in this situation he looked preferable to completely lost Scholes and O'Shea. Sir Alex will have to seriously talk with his midfield. Rooney's unsuccessful game is a consequence, rather, of a coaching decision. A player who has lost their form would probably be better able to cope with a limited amount of action in an attack than with a full-length over-task.
The ending was a chaotic mutual attack, of which one was remembered: the players of Manchester United three times in a row - Ronaldo from the penalty area, Fletcher and Carrick point-blank - hit Kim on goal, but the Benfica goalkeeper darted by a cat and did not allow a goal. We did not see the final assault on the hosts. The Mankunians finally stabilized the defensive ranks, calming the nervous nervous Vidic and Heinze, and blocked the approaches to the penalty area. And yet, in the last minute, the Benfica point could bring a blow to Nun Assis - but not fate ...
Opponents of Manchester United and Benfica sorted out relations in Glasgow at Celtic Park. As expected, the team from Copenhagen lost the initiative to the owners. Closer to the break, she missed a goal. Nakamura was shot down in the penalty area, after which the Japanese - the full-time performer of “standards” - headed for the “point”, but Kenny Miller, the most unexpected off-season acquisition of Celtic, prevented him. The Scottish forward, according to coach Gordon Strakan, told Nakamura “something untranslatable,” after which he scored from eleven meters. Miller could have secured success if it were not for the goalkeeper of Copenhagen, Christiansen, who saved the goal at the 44th and 66th minutes, remembering the times he played for the Rangers and the spirit of the Catholic Protestant derby. In the second half, the Danes leveled the game, but it did not bring dividends. “Celtic” with three points entrenched in second place in group “F”.