Berbatov Breaks Duck

AaB Aalborg 0 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (22), Berbatov (55, 78)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Evra, Rafael (Brown 66), O'Shea, Scholes (Giggs 16), Nani, Ronaldo, Rooney (Tevez 59), Berbatov

It probably could have been more, but a satisfactory result nonetheless. The only probable complaint is that we lost Scholes, Rooney and Rafael thru injuries.

It was a lively start with the visitors showing intent on scoring. Just as I started to get warmed up, my broadband went dead on me. It took a good frantic while to get it working again, having to restart the computer twice in the process (damn you Microsoft!). And I only just made it on time to catch Rooney score via a delightful thru ball from Giggs.

It did leave me scratching my head since I don't recall seeing Giggs in the starting lineup. It was only sometime later that I realised that Scholes had been scratchered off with knee problems.

Aalborg did give a good account of themselves and might have pulled level if not for some woeful crossing.

On 55 minutes, Aalborg's captain made a mess of a routine clearance, allowing Berbatov to score his first United goal. The screwed up clearance went high and Berbatov needed no invitation to volley the ball into the net.

In quick succession, both Rooney and Rafael indicated that they needed to be substituted. Rafael had by then firmly moved his way up the right-back packing order. I'm pretty sure, along with millions of other United fans, that he's the best right-back at the team. He's still a little inexperienced but that should eventually sort itself out with more games under his belt. If his brother is half as good as him (which all indications suggests he is and more), then we're in for an exciting future.

While I was salivating over the Da Silva twins, Berbatov sealed the game with his second and United's third of the evening. Ronaldo went down the byline and crossed the ball into the area to find Berbatov unmarked. After some contorting, he volleyed it home.

Tevez and Ronaldo had opportunities to punish Aalborg further but 3-0 was a fair result on tonight's display. We were not as efficient as I would have liked against a weak opponent, but anything more would have understated Aalborg's performance.

A few points to note about this game:

Nani is starting to wear my patience down. With all his god given skills, he seems too in love with his dribbling, holding it on for way too long at times. He reminds me of Ronaldo in his second year with us, too eager to please and not intune with the team concept. I'm sure, like Ronaldo, he'd eventually grow into it (just hopefully we don't have to wait 4 years for that to happen).

O'Shea is crap. His position today is to sit in front of the back four and not do anything too stupid. Unfortunately, he tried too hard to do too much today. When we were 2 up, he started to lose the ball in dangerous positions. Had we been up against a team that had a clue, we could have been punished.

I haven't finished gushing over Rafael. Outstanding going forward and pretty solid in defense. Could have had a couple of crackers. The only criticism is that he tends to lunge himself at the ball in defense instead of shadowing the winger. But like I mentioned earlier, he should grow out of it thru experience.

As much as I dislike Rio as a person, he's grown into an outstanding defender. Whether it's due to playing with Vidic along side him or not, it no longer significant. During this trying period, he's been our most consistent player by a long long shot.