Match Report: Man Utd 2 – Chelsea 1
Our European journey came to an end as we crashed out of the Champions League after a 3-1 aggregate loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford
Fernando Torres started alongside Nicolas Anelka in attack but was replaced at half time by Drogba who gave hope to the blues with a 77th minute equalizer but Ji-Sung Park sealed the win for United within a minute by scoring at the other end.
We went down to ten men when Ramires was sent off in the 70th minute after picking up a second yellow card.
Chelsea began the stronger as Torres glanced a header wide and laid a ball back for Nicolas Anelka, who smacked an effort past the post.
Shortly after this Florent Malouda fed Frank Lampard in space. He should have scored but his side-footed shot neither had the power or accuracy to beat Edwin van der Sar.
An Anelka strike whistled over the bar with United looking slightly rattled but then Hernandez thought he had eased the tension when he met a cracking curling cross from Rooney to head in.
The linesman’s flag curtailed celebrations – it was a marginal offside call. But United hit Chelsea with a sucker-punch two minutes before the break.
Rooney played a great pass out wide over the head of Anelka before Giggs cushioned it back to John O’Shea. The full-back saw Giggs dart in behind the Blues rearguard and picked him out with a defence- splitting ball. Giggs took the pass in his stride, whipping it across the six-yard box for Hernandez finish
It put United two up on aggregate, but our task was still the same in that we needed to score twice to go through.
Drogba replaced Torres, and then Ramires was dismissed after two fouls on Nani to add to our woes.
But suddenly Michael Essien picked out Drogba with a raking pass and he rattled the ball home.
Nerves were jangling round Old Trafford – but not for long.
Giggs was again the creator, playing in Park who made no mistake and set up a likely date with German side Schalke.
Our Season is all but done. What remains is to get a top four spot so we can have another go next season at trying to win the CL trophy which continues to elude us.
Gill Reeves – CSG disabled rep
Man Utd
• 01 Van der Sar
• 03 Evra – yellow card
• 05 Ferdinand
• 15 Vidic
• 22 O’Shea – yellow card
• 11 Giggs
• 13 Park Ji-Sung
• 16 Carrick
• 17 Nani (Valencia 75)
• 10 Rooney
• 14 Hernandez
Substitutes
• 29 Kuszczak,
• 06 Brown,
• 12 Smalling,
• 18 Scholes,
• 25 Valencia,
• 28 Gibson,
• 09 Berbatov
Chelsea
• 01 Cech
• 02 Ivanovic
• 03 A Cole
• 26 Terry – yellow card
• 33 Alex (Ferreira 82)
• 05 Essien
• 07 Ramires – two yellow cards, red card
• 08 Lampard
• 15 Malouda – yellow card
• 09 Torres (Drogba 46)
• 39 Anelka (Kalou 61)
Substitutes
• 22 Turnbull,
• 19 Ferreira,
• 10 Benayoun,
• 12 Mikel,
• 18 Zhirkov,
• 11 Drogba,
• 21 Kalou
Ref: Bartolo Benquerenca
Att: 75,000