United 2 - 1 Marseille

VDS

O'Shea(Rafael(Fabio)) Smalling Brown Evra

Nani(Valencia) Scholes Carrick Giggs

Rooney Chicharito

Chicharito: Excellent Movement, Bargain of the Year!

So we are through to the quarter finals after a decent performance against a very physical team. We scored early in the game and looked miles ahead of Marseille during the first 30 minutes or so. I even had the audacity to think that we were going to stuff the French champions. However, United had to wait until the 75th minute to put the game to bed (that's what I thought at the time) and let me enjoy the game(just for 7 minutes). Alas, with the final whistle looming large, Brown committed an own goal and this guaranteed 10 tense minutes for the United faithful.

As I mentioned earlier we started brightly but faded out. This may be because our team consisted of Giggsy and Scholes who are on the wrong side of the 30's and may not have 90 minutes in them anymore. They did well and covered more than 10km each but looked really tired late on. Rooney had a very good first half but faded out as the game progressed. The other striker, Chicharito, had another terrific game scoring a brace and showing how excellent his movement is. I have seen a lot of strikers at United since '97 and I honestly think that Chicharito's movement is the best I have ever seen along with that of Solskjaer and Ruud. However, he cannot dribble and his touches are often poor so he needs to improve that side of his game.

Nani Disappointed Me

Nani disappointed me today. He failed to beat his man and never really got going. Meanwhile Valencia put in another good shift and his involvement was of great importance because he was part of the buildup that led to the second goal. Well done Antonio! Carrick and Scholes, although not brilliant, did well today. Carrick covered a lot of ground and that was good to see.

At the back Smalling and Brown looked a bit shaky. Brown committed an own goal but put in some decent hard tackles. However, there doesn't seem to be any kind of communication between the two and this was shown on a couple of times. Our right back players, O'Shea and Rafael, had to be withdrawn after they both suffered a hamstring injury. I guess Vidic will be fit for our next game therefore Brown will be played in that right back berth... his rightful place in my opinion. 

So we'll see on Friday who we'll meet next. However, we must perform better if we want to get through to the semis. To be honest with you I'd rather see us win the league and being realistic,  I don't  think that we'll win the Champions League this year especially if we keep losing players to injuries. Winning the domestic double would do though ;) Come on UNITED!