With five minutes to go, knowing a goal from the opposition will see you out of the competition, you’re always going to be shitting yourself, but when you look at the game as a whole, it’s nice when you think your keeper didn’t really have a save to make.
The one heart in mouth moment was when Edwin Van der Sar came out for a cross and then gave up half way, meaning he didn’t get anything on the ball and they had a chance to head in to his open net. Fortunately, our defence covered it, which was the general theme for the evening. Even John O’Shea played well!
Other than that, the scariest moment was when Rooney was hopping around on one leg. I couldn’t even bring myself to say the word “metatarsal” as I watched him limp around! Thankfully he was fine and I didn’t have to envisage the rest of our campaign without him.
Not a classic performance from our lads but it was certainly better than what we’ve seen. Our passing was generally a lot better and our defenders weren’t suicidal. Brilliant.
Ronaldo’s goal was a dream. What a fantastic strike. For all the brilliant goals he’s scored for us, that was up there as one of the best. The distance the ball travelled, with the power behind it, was simply brilliant. Good on him for having the confidence to strike it and good on him for having the ability to pull it off.
The best chances of the game fell to United, with Nemanja Vidic getting away with missing that sitter just before half time. Ronaldo and Rooney held their head in their hands as Vidic somehow managed to lift the ball over the bar from a few yards out. Defensively though, there wasn’t much wrong with his game, with the addition of Rio to our back four obviously having a positive effect.
By and large, our players were on good form tonight. Anderson and Evra were a lot better than they have been, Carrick looked more assured, Ronaldo worked harder and O’Shea looked competent.
To win away at Porto, something no English team has before managed, is achievement enough as far as I’m concerned. When you consider how strong Porto looked at Old Trafford, the result is even more impressive.
There’s still a long way to go but this was a performance we could take some pride in, which makes it the exception to the performances we’ve put out for the past month or so. When you think we’ve already won two trophies, got two semi-finals to come, and we’re still top of the league, we don’t have an awful lot to complain about! Let’s take confidence from this performance and take it a level higher against Everton!
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I agree Rio made the back four seem much more confident, that one wobbly moment form VDS made me hold my breath but it was headed over. Phew.
What a goal from Ronaldo, he had a great game tonight, so did Anderson.
Are we over our little blip?
We weren’t amazing tonight, but a huge improvement from previous games.
not a classic by any means. berba held up play beautifully. nani clearly cant wait for next season… simply dreadful. ando was fantastic, what was that gesture after he was subbed? hope he doesnt anger SAF. Ronaldo… phew what a game he had. improvements needed if arsen young guns are to be seen of. but this united team really knows how to grind a result
I was pleased about tonight.Let’s face it.Even on our 11 game winning streak we didn’t sparkle with our performances but we have won many games like the Porto one.So if we are getting back to assured performances,that’s a big bonus.Let’s just hope that Rio will be here for the run in.What a difference he makes.
We are now playing your lot 3 times till the end of season. A lot at stake – but definitely 3 very good football games. Who’ll be smiling ? Wenger or SAF ? Find out on April 29th….
PG i don’t see either team winning all 3.And we could face off in the cup final are played.One thing is for sure.Us two will show people what a true football spectacle really is.Not like that water polo game we saw last night.
I think the gesture by Anderson was a reaction to the crowd, who have booing him throughout since he was a former rival player.
3 games with Arsenal to come, doesn’t get any easier does it? heh
Ronaldo is not a big game player!!!
Just from listening on the radio, it sounded like Berba had a good game. I thought we would ship at least one goal tonight – glad I was proved wrong although it was a very tense final few mins,
Marq– he wasn’t a rival player, but he was one of their own!! We signed him from Porto
I think the gesture was to Porto players who thought he was stalling.NO way he did that towards SAF.
See you lot in April- looking forward to some real football games without the HOOOOOOOOF from last night
Glory Glory Man United & Tha Reds Go Marchin On On On On…Manchester United…Pride Of Tha Muthafuckin North…Champions of England…Champions Of Europe…Champions Of Tha World…
Gerry Gooner see you then.Just do us a favor and stuff the dippers in 6 days.
@Gerry Gooner no worries just concentrate on the scousers game for now and be sure that everyone on this blog will be for Arse on that game.
LoL, I always thought he came from Benfica or something, my bad. Anyway, thats more reason they were booing him
did anyone notice how many times our boys played the ball back to edwin way too nonchalantly… seemed like there were 15 or so times that when we passed it back to him there was a Porto player within 3 seconds of blocking his kick out. those passes drive me insane, lol. other than those passes i am happy we won, however, we should not have taken our foot off the gas after ronaldo scored the first… if we woulda kept on pushing for goals i would not have had as dangerously high blood pressure for the last 84 mins or so…. viva ronaldo… (i guess, for this game at least). bring on the arses!
That speaks volumes about Van der Sar’s kicking doesn’t it? I can only recall 1 bad kick from him all night. Not the same can be said of many keepers
Anderson looked on fire . Bring on Fabregas!
Nani is not up to it.he was playing way to casually & giving the ball away.we could have played Fabio on the left who also would cover for Evra instead of Nani
ron’s strike, incredible. rooney, VITAL. berbatov, class. anderson, tenacious. rio, the missing link.
Much better tonight lads, more of the same. I said yesterday Porto were a run of the mill side, I may have been just giving myself a bit of bravado as they’re pretty useful actually, but we made it look comfortable. Big shout out to Ronaldo and O’Shea, 2 players I’ve been crucifying, 1 for a lack of effort and the other for a sheer lack of talent, but both did well tonight. Big Rio makes such a difference as well. Vidic needs him at the moment until his confidence gets back, couple more performances like that from the pair and we’ll be ok. Ando did well in midfield as well, and Berba played an important role. All in all I’m happy, sets us up nicely for Everton, just 270 minutes away from 2 more cup finals, keep it up boys!!!
Just some numbers from the ESPN.
Berba played 67 min. covered 7.23 km. 32 successful passes /80%/!!!!
Anderson- 78 min. 8.11 km 26 successful passes/ 65% Still a good number
Arround the same time /78 min/ Carrick -8.01 km, O’Shea – 7.95 km, R. Giggs – 7.94km
Some of Porto’s midfielders statistics at the 78th min
Raul Meireles- 27 passes/79%/
Fernando- 25 passes /86%/
I think this speaks enough of Berba’s commitment and work rate. He had an awesome game and this numbers show how unfair people could be. Remeber he played 10 min less. I think he was substituted, so Nani could help Evra on the left. Did not happen though, as Nani couldn’t get in the mood of the game.
Thank God SAF has eyes for what Berba shows
My opinion is, Berba, Ronaldo and Rooney made the difference last night.
dare i say it just once…………… viva ronaldo???
i aint got any finger nails left after that last night..
Viva John O’Shea
“There’s still a long way to go but this was a performance we could take some pride in, which makes it the exception to the performances we’ve put out for the past month or so.”
My sentiments exactly!
Very good result. Now onto Wembley to play Everton for a chance to play at Wembley!!!!
Scott the red,i have a correction to make.You said no english team has won there,mine is no british team has won there.But you never can tell when record breakers are in town,anything can happen.Ask Arsenal.
Thats a FACT.
according to fat Andy Gray and Martin Tyler, Porto were all over us? I really had to check my tv signal a few times because fouls against united were given incorrectly and the replay clearly showed either vidic or carrick touching the ball yet andy gray was like yea thats a foul. and when a united player was fouled they didnt open their mouths.
i thought we were quite comfortable in the first half to be honest.
how many times did they say just one goal and united are out, they were willing the ball into the net! the difference in lasts night commentary compared to the tuesday game, they will be drooling over pool and torres and hoping they do the gunners.
well fcuk em…
Rio! Rio! Rio! Rio! Please, please, PLEAASSEEE stay fit for the run-in!!! Ronaldo and co will take care of the rest!
The most important result from this match (besides the fact we won) wasn’t the Ronaldo strike, or that Berbatov had his best game in months, or that SAF had finally got his team selection absolutely spot on. It was that we didn’t concede a goal. The clean sheet should do our confidence a world of good against a team that hardly ever loses at home.
We were still not as fluid as we need to be, and looking at the Gunners we still need to lift our game if we harbor any hope of actually accomplishing the mythical quintuple. But this was a positive step. Ronaldo upfront gave the team balance, sure that’s not his best position but then neither is it Rooney or Berbatovs and the fact remains. You stick Ronaldo right at the top and you negate his tendency to never track back. Rooney isn’t ideal on the wings, but his work ethic and his total commitment to the cause more then make up for it. And speaking of shrek – he was immense last night. Tracking back and covering Cissoko (sp?) who was such a terror at OT, Rooney showed just how valuable he is to the team.
Our defense too looked solid with Rio partnering vidic, and hopefully Rio can stay fit in this, our most crucial period. We still aren’t over the hump, but there were clear signs from most of the team that we are getting there.
(having said that. Carrick needs to be rested. He looks very jaded. So too does Evra, and while Nani was ok holding up the ball and wasting time in the end he was totally inept when it came to covering for Evra. Nani and an out of form Evra is hopefully something we won’t have to see on the left for the rest of the games this season. Berba while good at holding up the ball is ponderous and slows our game down to a crawl. He was calm on the ball, but the number of back passes and lazy runs yesterday just makes me wonder if he will honestly ever know what it means to be a United player. Lazy genius might be appreciated at Spuds and Bremen, but in this team it’s your laziness that gets spotted first, then your genius. )
i try not to be too negative, but I thought Carrick and Evra were very poor yesterday, Carricks passing is very sloppy at the minute, and evra has become very easy to get past now. On a better note, Ronaldo was excellent as was as usual wazza, rio, vida and thankfully a return to form of Anderson.
donocobaino – They were practically willing the ball into United s net the cunts. At what point in second half when we had 60 odd per cent possession one of em said summat like “Uniteds European dream is seriously under threat”. What the fuck? It is funny that people can be this bitter. Love it when we shove it to them. No British team as ever won there…………………………………. Whatever!
On Tuesday night they were almost making out that the dippers were the english side and rentboys a bloody foreign team or summat. They were actually that biased.
Coogie i thought evra made some great tackles, I thought he was much improved compared to recent games and certainly looked better than he in a while.
asidfg – in regards to that gesture, I think that was to the Porto fans who booed him going off, being an ex player and all that
It was great to see Fergie grinning and giving Anderson a big affectionate hug at the end, while the kid (keep remembering that’s what he is) looked all bright-eyed and excited. I thought the Porto crowd gave Anderson a generous round of applause when he was subbed, but maybe I was mis-reading it. It was a great result and good solid performance, in which it was pleasing to see certain players who’ve been getting stick – Berba, O’Shea, Carrick, Evra – doing well. And for those who like to hold up the past as a stick to beat the present players with, if there was a better goal in Europe than Ronaldo’s in ’99 or ’68, I don’t remember it!
coogie- looks like you were watching the same game as me! i thought carrick and evra were our two poorest players last night and their poor form over the last month or so is a little worrying considering the consistency they have both shown in the past. lets hope they can pull themselves together sharpish.
devilton- ur post proves to me, (not that i needed proof) that no matter what certain people do, (ahem, berbatov, ahem!;) certain people will be dying to slate them.
had we have lost last night no doubt mike phelans lack of knowledge? of european football would have resurfaced somewhere! ;s
I thought Evra did ok, he made a few good runs and won a few tackles, but he was beaten easily at times. Carrick was poor if you ask me, he looked very tired. Could do with a game or so off, hopefully we can give him that now that Anderson looks back to full fitness. Thought Berbatov looked quite tired as well, though taking a few knocks to the ankles can’t have helped.
Good to have Anderson and Rio back, hopefully with Gary Neville and Rafael back in the frame now as well the squad will be fresh enough to keep challenging on all fronts. Keeping a clean sheet last night was the biggest bonus for me.
Things are looking promising at just the right time, especially with injuries easing with the imminant return of Brown and Rafael. If we can keep the solidity at the back then the forwards will deliver.
The result was never in doubt…….. alright I jest, but if games are to be won by wonder goals, this one was up there …. what a fucking goal !!
Bring it on you fucking gooners…..
sorry SCOTT, SPELT\ ME USERNAME INCORRECTLY …AGAIN
Anderson, Rooney and Ferdinand were outstanding last night, Carrick and Giggs gave the ball away a few too many times…time for these two to have a rest after A LOT of games. Ronaldo was Ronaldo, amazing strike and a great performance. Rooney was Mr 110% as ever! Rio was confidence personified and this rubs off on the rest of the back four (more clean sheets on the way if he stays fit). And then there was Anderson, I don’t know who got man of the match last night but if that boy didn’t the judges need there heads looking at. His strength, vision, power and work-rate were amazing, he was so dynamic, he really was a man amongst boys. We got bullied in the first game (even Vidic) but he bossed the midfield and tracked back against Portos strong forwards who, in the first leg out-muscled us.
VIVA ANDERSON we don’t get behind him enough!!!