United Dispatches Schalke

Schalke 0 - Manchester United 2
Scorer
Manchester United: Giggs (67), Rooney (69)


Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Fabio, Evra, Carrick, Giggs, Park (Scholes 73), Valencia, Rooney (Nani 83), Hernandez (Anderson 73)

Surely United must be thru to the finals. I can't possibly see how Schalke can turn this around at Old Trafford in 8 days time. We were dominant in even single aspect of the game and the contest should really have been over within the first half.

Neuer was exceptional. He's a truly special goalkeeper and in my opinion, he's probably the best in the world by a huge margin. It was him who kept Schalke in the game the entire time. We curved the German defense apart at will. Whenever we moved forward, we created a goalscoring chance and by some miracle it remained goalless at the half. Neuer made a couple of point-blank saves and several one on one stops. And all that in the first 45 minutes.

We continued our dominance over the Germans in the second half and Neuer continued to frustrate all our attempts. It wasn't until the 67th minute before we found the elusive breakthru.

Rooney's pin-point passing once again split the Schalke defense and after the umpteenth attempt at goal, Giggs finally managed to slide the ball under Neuer's giant frame to give United a thorouthly deserved lead.

A couple of minutes later, Rooney doubled the lead. This time it was Hernandez who tore the Schalke defense apart with a determined run and a pass that sliced the defense to ribbons.

United took the foot off the peddle and kept possession, while still moving forward when the opportunities arose. The pace of the game dropped as we saw out a good win to bring back to Old Trafford next week.

I doubt, based on today's performance, we would be troubled at all by Schalke. Barring a miracle of epic proportions, we should have secured a path into the finals.

And as a last note, Ferguson must find a way to get Neuer to Old Trafford. If and when we lose Van der Sar next season, Neuer is definitely my first choice replacement. I've been following his exploits in the Bundesliga this season and he's definitely the best out there. And that's made more impressive with the crap defenders he's had to put up with.