The Manchester United Thread X

Overall we deserved to go through in my opinion but I'm biased, I just think that if RVP was on form in both ties we would've easily have scored 2 more goals, we created the chances but our front men never took them, Madrid however while created some amazing chances they were stopped by world class keeping that DDG and only 2-3 other keepers could make, I personally think that Juve, Bayern, Madrid and my favourite Dortmund can win in, Milan/Barca also have a shot but we would definitely have been there had we won


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If Giggs can still play like he did and put that kind of effort in at his age he can go on for 2 or 3 more seasons, he stepped into Marty McFly's DeLorean yesterday.

United credit to you guys put in a very good performance just unlucky not to go through. You guys actually had a quite a few amount of chances

Was a heroic performance from Rafael, managed to contain Ronaldo for the most part while still offerering a signficant attacking thread. Ran himself into the ground and gave absolutely everything. Best performances came from him and Welbeck, which is encouraging with the future in mind, combined age which can't be much higher than Giggs and they stepped up more than anyone else.

Thought we were excellent for an hour, kept them at arms length and offered a significant attacking threat too. Welbeck's job on Alonso reminded me of Ramires against Dani Alves, cut him out of the game and then broke away help the attacks. It's a job Rooney has struggled to do on the biggest stage, Busquets comes to mind. Welbeck's turning into our Park, and the good thing is that he could become so much more complete.

Madrid deserve credit, they did everything they had to well. Ramos had an excellent game and but for him we'd probably have been leading at the break. Mourinho responded to the red card very well, and if i'm being critical i'd say that SAF didn't, but it's hard to be too negative because his (somewhat surprising) starting selection and tactics were spot on and it's a situation that we should never have been put in. Lots of comparisons to 2010 against Bayern and it definitely is a similar feeling, if Barca go out then it'll probably be even worse because not only are we out of a competition we're favourites/2nd favourites to win but we're out of it primarily because of a refereeing mistake. The Bayern one was our own fault, mistakes from Evra, Carrick and Rafael, but yesterday we were almost flawless and that brings a horrible sense of injustice.

Still, watching us finish the match like we did filled me with pride. Young's commitment to the very end sticks in my mind for some reason. Would have been fascinating to see the last few minutes if the foul on Evra was given and we scored the pen, unlikely it would have changed anything but the feeling for those few minutes would have been incredible. Probably missed a trick but not finding a way to get Hernandez on but there's only so much looking back you can do. Gotta try and move on, there's a title to secure, and Sunday is absolutely massive now.

Tbh, on that note you'd say that madrid deserved to go through just as much, yes it was great goalkeeping but they created great chances and so did you. Unlucky with the red card but hey that's football. Said madrid would win though so at least my predictions right. Madrid to win the CL I guess.


Could say the same for madrid. It was two very good ties and I think regardless of the red card that game would have gone down to the wire, gotta credit madrid though. Beating united at old trafford and beating barca at nou camp in the space of a week is pretty unprecedented.

With DDG, his performance in the first leg wasn't too dissimilar to diego lopez's performance in the second leg. Two quality keepers who were getting stick before the matches(remember people in the pub saying lopez was rubbish because of the first goal he conceded).



Was very impressed with rafael, he struggled a bit at the first half of the first leg but he got into it and in the second leg he contained ronaldo very well. One thing I saw was that when real madrid were on the break with ronaldo you could see 3 players on him in a flash, rafael man marked him(similar to the way jones did in fact and clevs/carrick running back to get him) Welbeck did great again. Had my reservations about that guy but it's clear that SAF rates him and he could be a starter for you guys. With some improvement to his finishing(as his link up play, stamina, dribbling ability and holding the ball is pretty good) he could become a quality player. Welbeck reminds me a bit of tevez at times tbh with his doggedness.

At the pub I said the exact same thing about putting hernandez on. I get the point of putting young on and he did well at times getting the balls into key areas but when you need two goals in the space of 10 mins, a man like hernandez is invaluable, just felt like he could exploit any small space madrid made(seeing as they played with a high line for pretty much the whole match), them putting pepe on made it a much more solid back four but allowed young to do his thing. The service in young was there and I think hernandez could have come on instead of valencia. I don't think there was a plan to stop modric either, mourinho noticed how alonso was being contained so got modric on to do that work. I think the plan would have worked against barca as they wouldn't have shot outside the box(which ultimately gave madrid the momentum to win the game)

I reckon you'd draw against us in the weekend and beat us at stamford bridge, We have europa league tomorrow iirc but we'd rest players to face you guys. But it'd probably lead to a disjointed 0-0 or 1-1 draw so we'd have to work harder for the second leg. You guys obviously used your best team, went down to ten men against madrid at the bernabeu so I think you guys will be slightly jaded after how hard the team worked.

The funniest thing was the commentator who said Lopez is a second string keeper who isn't very good and some of the pundits were saying hes not a very good keeper. Don't think they actually realized how many Champions league games he had been in before...

IIRC, we also faced Chelsea at home after going out against Bayern 3 years ago, though that was in the league (a title-decider which we lost) rather than the FA Cup. Still, an extremely important game in our season now.

Think I'm a better commentator than these fools man. Remember in the pub saying that's de gea's first save to my mates after 20mins. Guess what the commentator said 10 seconds later?

Did real madrid ever use him in dead rubber ties when he was at castilla/second string madrid keeper. I know he played at villareal quite a bit but I dunno if he ever got any CL appearances at madrid before the move to villareal? Is it me or it sounds like they get him mixed up with antonio adan.

The funniest thing was the commentator who said Lopez is a second string keeper who isn't very good and some of the pundits were saying hes not a very good keeper. Don't think they actually realized how many Champions league games he had been in before...

Did real madrid ever use him in dead rubber ties when he was at castilla/second string madrid keeper. I know he played at villareal quite a bit but I dunno if he ever got any CL appearances at madrid before the move to villareal? Is it me or it sounds like they get him mixed up with antonio adan.

Made less then 5 appearances at Real Madrid. Quite a few at the Castilla but nothing much appart from one game i think in the Champions League haha but like you said it was a dead rubber tie. I definitely think they got him mixed up with Adan because people know Lopez is a good keeper with any basic Spanish League Knowledge.

Andy Townsend, perhaps not but he's always been rubbish as a pundit/co-commentator despite being a decent footballer in his day. However, Clive Tyldesley did mention that Lopez has played over 50 European games including a Europa League semi final with Villarreal (in truth I think it's just under 50, but never mind).



I believe he played twice in Europe for them, a game in each in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007, I think.

I can't remember who it was but it stuck haha because when Lopez made some of the saves later you could almost hear in his voice that he may have screwed up calling Lopez a second rate keeper.

Rafael was extremely good as well. United almost sort of shackled Ronaldo but he still scored two.

I can't believe united were relying on john o shea and gary neville 2-3 seasons ago. Rafael is such a boss. Don't know any young RB's as good as him. De sciglio is under his level(although would be as good as him at his age), so is azpi, walker and montoya. Can't think of anyone his age as good as rafael tbh.

Rafael has also improved a lot defensively this season. At the start of the season he was getting manhandled by ricky lambert and now he's managed to contain the likes of ronaldo.

I can't remember who it was but it stuck haha because when Lopez made some of the saves later you could almost hear in his voice that he may have screwed up calling Lopez a second rate keeper.

Rafaels got nothing on O'Shea, that god nutmegged Figo

It was Townsend. Townsend certainly did say something along those lines once or perhaps twice. Something about him being the weak link, not experienced and not looking the best then, when he pulled off the couple of good saves, there was admiration and perhaps surprise in his voice.

It was Townsend. Townsend certainly did say something along those lines once or perhaps twice. Something about him being the weak link, not experienced and not looking the best then, when he pulled off the couple of good saves, there was admiration and perhaps surprise in his voice.

Rafael was extremely good as well. United almost sort of shackled Ronaldo but he still scored two.

I'm quite defensive of him, but it pissed me off during the first leg when people were saying he was having a poor game. He wasn't have a poor game, he was have the exact game any full back would have when trying to deal with one of the greatest attackers in history and also trying to deal with Fabio Coentrao doubling up on you. He, as expected in that situation, got caught out a few times. He got significantly more protection from Coentrao this leg, and I think he did really well. For a 22 year old in what is really his first break through season, I think he's doing brilliantly. This the first time he's made of 30 apps in a season, and his form has been brilliant bar, the Reading game where he was clearly knackered.

IIRC, we also faced Chelsea at home after going out against Bayern 3 years ago, though that was in the league (a title-decider which we lost) rather than the FA Cup. Still, an extremely important game in our season now.