Manchester United 1 - Zenit St Petersburg 2
Scorers
Manchester United: Vidic (73)
Zenit St Petersburg: Pogrebniak (45), Danny (60)
Red Card: Scholes (90)
Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville (Brown 76), Evra, Scholes, Anderson (Park 60), Fletcher (O'Shea), Nani, Rooney, Tevez
I can't even use the excuse that we didn't turn up today. We gave our best but were absolutely murdered by a rampant Zenit side that was easily the best team in Europe last season. I mean they obliterated the likes of German giants Leverkusen and Bayern Munich in the quarters and semis of the UEFA Cup respectively. And today they did their number on us. For a generous part of the game it was just men against boys.
They continuously ripped down our flanks and created havoc. Neither Evra nor Neville could cope with the speed and accuracy of their passes. The wingers, Fletcher and Nani, couldn't do much to help out either. It was just quite shocking to see us on the receiving end of things. If not for some desperate defending and the heroics of Edwin Van der Sar, we would have been dead and buried by half time.
The worst part was that we're were even out of our element. Damn, we were hardworking and hungry, fighting for every ball, but just outclassed in the worst way possible. Now I know how the Wigan, Newcastle, Sunderland...etc etc fans must feel.
At least when we went 2-nil down, Zenit somewhat took the foot off the paddle and we seiged their goal. But try as we might, we just didn't look very much like scoring. In fact Zenit looked more likely to add on to their tally with lightning fast counters. Their football is fast and, more importantly, ridiculously efficient. Dick Advocaat is a master.
We did eventually pull one back thru some good play from Tevez, who pulled the ball back for Vidic to score from close range on the 73rd minute. It gave us some confidence that we might not play second fiddle to an impressive Zenit team.
The team pounded the Russian goal but some superb goalkeeping and organised defending kept the game from going into extra time. It wasn't that we didn't deserve to draw level. It was that Zenit just deserved to win.
Scholes probably echoed our frustration best when he got himself sent off for a silly 'hand of god'.
As critical as I have been with this team, I cannot fault them today. I'm proud they showed alot of fight, but hand to heart, we're just not good enough. I would love for them to progress further in the Champions League and have the chance to meet them again with a full squad. I would love to see how our best eleven would cope with this opponent. I'm not sure we would beat them, but it sure would be an exciting game.
Goodbye Saha
Tissueboy has signed with Everton for an undisclosed fee. I'm still gushing over Zenit to pen my thoughts on this.
Good player, just not dependable.
Good bye, good riddence and good luck.
The silverlining here is that we still have someone to make fun of as Owen Hargreaves is fast becoming the prime candidate to take on the Tissueboy mantle with his latest knee injury.
