What Really went Wrong?

Summary of the game

Did NANI deserve to be sent off?

The stage was set. A 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu was in some ways a superb result, but a monumental task lay ahead. With Real Madrid hitting 'Form' right at the crucial time, the signs for united were anonymous.

But as Sir Alex mentioned, one should not overlook the threats posed by the excellent United attack amid all the hype surrounding the 'los galacticos' , especially the return of Uniteds prodigal son - Cristiano Ronaldo.

As the team news filtered out, the first shock of the night arrived. No Wayne Rooney. How? When? Why? Manchester United without Wayne Rooney? Especially after his cracking strike over the weekend? what was Fergie thinking? were some of the queries that jumped into mind. But the blind faith built up into United fans that anything Sir Alex does is correct, silenced these questions. After all he is the 'Boss'. The 'special one' himself was a bit coy, talking about his future and other stuff that makes the British media swoon around him like flies near a defecating horse. Oh well.

Kick Off arrived. Old Trafford was like a cauldron filled with red hot fire. The atmosphere was electric, the fans were jumping, flags, mosaics.... it was a sight to behold. No wonder every footballer who has set foot in Old Trafford talks fondly about it. The stadium was rocking. The stage was set.

The match followed a familiar pattern. United sat deep, allowed Madrid to attack. When the play broke, the trio of Nani, Welbeck and Van Persie caused havoc. With Carrick and the excellent Giggs orchestrating the play, United looked a real threat whereas Madrid's attacks pattered out without any fire. The first half ended with United having the front foot, but not having scored the deserved goal. The crowd were getting a little uneasy, but the game so far had shown that United could progress. and that was proved right shortly into the second half. Again havoc was caused inside the Real Madrid penalty area, with Van Persie and Welbeck having shots saved, but Nani recovered the ball and swept in a cross, which, via double deflection off Welbeck and Sergio Ramos, went into the net. United were all set to book a place in the quarters, with an excellent attacking and containing performance. Then pandemonium struck.

The turning point of the game                                    

The ball was cleared and Nani, innocuously looking over his shoulder, ran into Alvaro Arbeloa, who dropped like a hand grenade. foul? a talking to? a yellow maybe? Straight RED. Ah well. Flashback to the Rafael red vs Munich? What followed was astonishing. Sir Alex could not believe it. He barged into the fourth official, who had no explanation. Above all, regarding Nani, I don't for a second believe that he meant to kick Alvaro Arbeloa. What he did was reckless and dangerous and without doubt worthy of a caution, but he did not have any thought along the lines of 'I'm going to hurt someone here'. Not thinking about what you do and actually hurting someone is practically a definition of the word 'reckless.'

Even if referees - and refereeing bodies - feel that this sort of thing is worthy of dismissal, I honestly think they are missing a trick by not involving players in the discussion. You can tell by their body language that no Real Madrid players were expecting nor demanding a red card. Players think differently to referees - in fact they also think differently to fans - and they have an instinctive feel for fair play, for the most part. I feel certain that if 1,000 players were polled, from all corners of the earth, that at least 90% would say this deserves a caution at most. And the surprising bit was the Turkish referee (Cuneyt Cakir), when looked up at twitter, followed only Real Madrid and Barcelona. And, this is the same guy who -

· Showed John Terry Red card vs Barcelona

· Showed John Terry a red vs Barcelona

Does this mean the referee did that on purpose? I'll leave it up to you to decide.

The result? United lost, even after a great push towards the end.
Did United deserve to lose? No.
Did United deserve to win? We will never know.
Did Real deserve to go through over the two legs? No(opinions may differ).
But in the end, it shows that no matter how much you prepare, if it isn't meant to be, then it wont happen.

The feeling of being hard done by will always prevail, but we are United. We will come back stronger and better. Believe.

Hope Dortmund go on to lift the Champions League.

                                

--

Aby

Nani's wonder goal vs Chelsea in his 100th PL appearance

Talk of confidence and player growth, and only 1 name will come in your mind - Manchester United's no. 17 Luis Nani.

--> Nani's 2nd goal against Chelsea, 8 minutes from 1st half killed the opponent before they could recover from Chris Smalling's 8th minute opener.

This game marked Nani's 100th MUFC PL appearance, taking his goal tally to 19 and a total of 33 assists. Interestingly, Sky Sports compared Nani to his Portugal counterpart and Manchester United's previous no. 7 - Cristiano Ronaldo, or as fans called him CR7. And it turns out Nani's first 100 Premier League performances gained him better results compared to Ronaldo's performance during that period. As Skysports pundit, Gary Neville said "Ronaldo took his time to settle at United".

Ronaldo who?

Nani, on the other hand was given scarce chances since his arrival from Sporting CP in 2007 and it was only since the start of 2010-11 season, that he started to appear on MUFC team sheet frequently. Obviously, the last season was the most fruitful for the Portugese as he got capped 33 times out of a maximum 38 and scored 9 times with 20+ assists.

Well done Luis Nani, we at TRDS would like to congratulate on your 100th PL league appearance, may there be 900 more and may you become a no.7 soon, even better than CR7.

Finally check out the refreshing goal Nani scored against Chelsea at the weekend, celebrating his 100th PL game in SOME style!

We'll leave you with the goal below but the bottom line is that Nani owned Chelsea's defence! and oh boy what a cross from Jonny Evans! Doesn't it remind you of Scholesy for a moment?

UPDATE: OK THE VIDEO MAY HAVE BEEN TAKEN OFF, BUT KINDLY ENJOY A COMPILATION FROM' Bachka Ch'

Match 26: Rooney runs the show as United win yet another derby! (Video)

That Wayne Rooney goal was easily worth 20

The Manchester Derby on the 12th of February will be definitely remembered as the one in which Rooney scored his best goal of the career and also the most memorable moment at Old Trafford.

Manchester United   2-1    Manchester City

Nani  41' Rooney 78'                              Silva 65' 

Booked: Kompany, Milner,  Scholes, Giggs  

Go HERE to read the match review, but I'm pretty sure you would wanna replay the above video as many times as possiblee!

In case you were looking for other goal highlights of this derby or any other great goals scored recently go HERE. P.S. You may wanna bookmark it!

Match 24: Confident United ease past Villa with a handy win!

Spread the Hype!

Manchester United confidence is back with Wayne Rooney scoring his first brace of the season!

Manchester United vs Aston Villa

20.00 K.O

Old Trafford

Attendance: 75,000

Match 24 against Aston Villa was eyed as a tricky fixture by people outside United. But it all looked too easy for the Red Devils as two goals from ever-confident Wayne Rooney and a lovely strike from Captain Serbia Nemenja Vidic were enough to seal a comprehensive victory at Old Trafford. Manchester United still sit 5 points atop at the Premier League after Arsenal and Chelsea won their close fixtures against Everton (2-1) and away to Sunderland (4-2) respectively.


Match Review:
Wayne Rooney's 1st goal against Aston Villa

Review Match Day 15: Berbatov revvs past Rovers (Video)

“Christmas came about a month early to Old Trafford.”

And indeed it did, the atmosphere was festive with the full capacity crowd enjoying Berbatov’s moment of magic. His performance was fabulous or to say, Berbalicious.

It was never going to be easy for a Blackburn side to play against a rejuvenated Manchester United at Old Trafford which was ready to welcome its star striker Wayne Rooney, his first start at Old Trafford after his contract saga. And what a reception it was. The fans put all their bitter memories behind and welcomed their favorite with loud and continuous chants of “Rooney Rooney”.

If the game was important for Rooney, it was even more important for his strike partner, Dimitar Berbatov. The Bulgarian had not scored since his match winning performance against Liverpool and with all the rumors that the manager had finally lost his faith in the “lazy” striker and was ready to sell him flying around the pressure on his was immense.

Living a dream: Dimitar Berbatov

VIDEO: Birthday boy Nani destroys Ronaldo goal

Portugal took on Spain last week in an International fixture dated 17.11.2010 and won convincingly by a big heavy margin of 4 goals to nil. Critics say this was one of the worst defeats of Spain at the hands of Portugal.

But there was to the game than the Portugal dominance:

It was Luis Nani's birthday that day and he ruined Cristiano Ronaldo's day by heading his marvellous chipped shot which was already going into the net EASILY. To add an insult to an injury, the goal was not allowed as Nani was offside!

Nani later apologised to a furious Cristiano Ronaldo.





Watch the video here:

UCL Review: Nani's powerful goal gives United 3 points against Bursaspor (VIDEO)

Nani's 30 yards strike was enough for United

FT: Manchester United 1-0 Bursaspor

Manchester United failed to dominate the game against Bursaspor despite the early goal by Portugese winger - Nani. This was his fourth goal so far this season - Nani has certainly gone onto a flying start. He seems to be fitting in his Portugese counterpart - Cristiano Ronaldo's shoes quite nicely.

Manchester United sit comfortably at the top of Group C with 7 points followed by Glasgow Rangers "Gers" at the second spot with 5 points after drawing 1-1 with Valencia. Bursaspor are at 4th at the moment yet to register a win in Champions League this season. 

Nani and Chicharito shine on international duty by scoring goals

The only way to impress a large section of football fans for a striker or an attacking player is TO SCORE GOALS.

It's been goals galore for United's two forward men: Luis Nani (Portugal) and Javier Hernandez aka Chicharito (Mexico).

Both these players have scored goals for their teams this week and TRDS would like to congratulate the lads. May they hit the Carrington training ground with full might that they can totally shake their opponents and pledge to win trophies for United.