Sharing The Spoils

Villarreal 0 - Manchester United 0

Team: Kuszczak, Rio, Evans, O'Shea, Evra, Carrick (Tevez 86), Fletcher (Gibson 80), Anderson, Nani (Park 85), Ronaldo, Rooney

Here's something that doesn't happen often: Manchester United failed to score in consecutive matches. To be precise, this is the second consecutive goalless draw. But let's be honest, who didn't see it coming? I know I did and I'm glad I made some money off it too. Oh and while I'm at it...fuck leeds.... fuck leeds.....fuck leeds!

The game itself was anything but a dull draw this time round. Both teams made a real fight of it, even though the starting lineups suggested otherwise. Ferguson practically pussed out, playing with 3 in the centre and Rooney up front on his own, barely supported by Nani and Ronaldo. Villarreal weren't any better, playing Rossi as the lone goal poacher.

Yet the game was pleasantly entertaining. Both teams pushed forward when the opportunity arose. I suppose what made the game interesting was that neither side played with any pressure to win, although there were enough meaty challenges to suggest that a loss would not be tolerated.

Ronaldo had a number of good chances from free-kicks but all were well met by the keeper, Lopez. His best chance was a thunderous shot that Lopez parried onto the bar in the 40th minute.

Villarreal tried to turn on the pressure in the second half, but were well met marshalled by the defense. Our fullbacks, Evra and O'Shea, were particularly impressive. Not only were they good in defense, they provided the width whenever we pushed forward. Kuszczak and Evans were rather jittery though. Luckily neither made any fatal errors.

I'm beginning to wonder what the deal is with Tevez. With Berbatov injured, you would think that he would start, but instead, he was on the bench. To add to the intrigue, he was on the touchline preparing to come on at the 70th minute, but was recalled to the bench again, only to come on again on the 86th minute.

I have no idea what was going on. It seemed to me like Ferguson was fucking around with Tevez's mind, and that's the last thing you want to do with a strike already low of confidence. I totally regretted switching to the Chinese commentary, trying to avoid that idiot of a commentator from ESPN, Tommy Smyth. As irritating as that twat is on TV, at least it would've given me an idea of what was happening then.

Anyway, Villarreal were reduced to ten men when Capdevila received a straight red for crudely chopping Ronaldo down. Personally I thought it was rather harsh, but the referee was ridiculously card-happy. I'm surprised that at the end of the day, only 5 other players received yellow. Could've sworn at least half the people on the pitch had yellows to their names.

The good news with this result is that both teams have advanced to the next stage. And we should be in pole position to top the group.

I'm personally looking forward to the big derby this weekend. And we'd better start scoring some goals.