Vital Away Draw Puts United In The Driving Seat

Lyon 1 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Lyon : Benzema 52
Manchester United : Tevez 87

Team : Van der Sar, Evra, Rio, Vidic, Brown, Hargreaves (Carrick 78), Scholes (Tevez 65), Anderson, Giggs (Nani 65), Ronaldo, Rooney

4-5-1. I'm never too fond of this formation, granted it was the same one that won us the weekend game against Arsenal. Strictly speaking, today's formation looked more like a 4-3-2-1 (Christmas tree) formation, but you'd probably have an easier time selling that to a cow than me.

The first half was a tight affair, with neither side really gaining a foothold on possession. Both sides had a couple of decent half chances. Rooney did have a glorious chance to put us in front but a heavy second touch saw the ball go too close to the Lyon keeper.

We came out of the second half totally dominating possession. It was the first time in the game that any side actually looked like winning the game convincingly. Yet against the run of play, Lyon opened the scoring.

Benzema, with his reputation already bulging, enhanced it when he scored an unlikely goal. Already there are heavy rumours out there that there is very strong interest by Fergie. Alone against 4 red shirts around him, he somehow found space to fire in a shot from outside the penalty box and beyond the diving arms of Van der Sar. Like I said, it's an unlikely goal and as I'm typing this entry, I'm still alittle bewildered how the hell he found the space for the shot. I suppose that's why he's special.....the ability to make something out of nothing. I'm sure after today's perfomance, Fergie is going to press extra hard to bring him to OT.

Anyway, at 1-0, it wasn't good for us at all. In fact this is the worst type of result to bring back to OT. It means that we have to win at OT and prevent Lyon from scoring. Not exactly an easy task considering the presence of Benzema.

Fergie brought on Nani and Tevez in place of Giggs and Scholes to booster the attack. Given how both huffed and puffed without any telling contributions, this was the right move. As both Nani and Tevez walked to the touchline, I was actually fearing the worst, and that Fergie would do the silly thing, stay loyal to his veterans and take the outstanding Anderson off instead. Thankfully common sense prevailed.

As time was slowly slipping away, Carrick was brought on for Hargreaves on the 78th minute. By this time, Lyon was already contented to sit back and wait it out.

The good thing is that United were not. We kept pressing forward and in the 87th minute, our efforts were rewarded with a scrappy goal by Tevez. I'm certainly not complaining. I maybe abit picky at times, but I'll take them anyway they come by.

Like I mentioned in my previous entry, we brought a result back to OT. While it's not a victory, a score draw is possibly just as good, considering the circumstances we had to endure. Barring a catastrophe of epic proportions, there shouldn't be any reason why we would make it to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

More importantly, it's a result that should boost the morale of the players, given the way and time it was scored. Hopefully it's good enough for us to see a repeat of the result when we face Newcastle this weekend at St James. One can always hope! ;o)