United Continues To Haunt Chelsea's Champions League Dreams

Manchester United 2 - Chelsea 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Hernandez (44), Park (77)
Chelsea: Drogba (77)


Red Card: Ramires (70)


Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Carrick, Giggs, Park, Nani (Valencia 75), Rooney, Hernandez

That was quite a game and a shame if you missed it.

We started off slow and shaky, giving away possession easily and failing to control the midfield. Ramires, Essien and Lampard were proving a handful and we didn't help ourselves by acting like little schoolgirls on their first date. O'Shea in particular was pretty abysmal, making silly passes and playing teammates into trouble, but he turned it around for the first goal.

While Chelsea had the early dominance, they were woeful in the last third...and I mean truely woeful. If Torres was bad 6 days ago, he was terrible this week. There must be something in the water or the food at Stamford Bridge that doesn't agree with him, coz he's nowhere even close to the Torres that played at Liverpool.

With Chelsea literally firing blanks, it was a matter of time before we had our spell, and boy did we make it count. O'Shea expertly played Giggs down the byline and Giggs ran away from his defender to place the goal on a platter for Hernandez. The goal came almost at the stroke of half time, deflating Chelsea at a crucial period in the game.

Much to my chargin, the second half saw the ineffective Torres replaced by Drogba. The good thing with a 2 goal lead in the tie was that our heads were held high and we were the much better team at that point in time, creating chances while Chelsea struggled to match up.

Ramires found himself carded for the second time when he took Nani's legs away in the 70th min. It should have signaled the end of the game, but we're United and we somehow tried to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The sending off saw Chelsea find a second wind and they threw caution to the wind and came at us with renewed energy. Drogba found an equalizer with a brilliant individual play after a pass from Essien. At 1-1, all Chelsea needed was another goal to win the tie on away goals.

Earlier in the season, this would have signaled an unlikely cameback by the away team, but United at this stage of the season are made of sterner stuff. Even before Chelsea finished their muted celebrations, they were silenced from this edition of the Champions League by Giggs' quick thinking and Park's quickfire goal.

It was a deserved victory over the two legs and a likely trip to Germany in the next.

The treble dream still lives on, but we're taking it one game at a time, starting with Shitty this weekend.