Man U have knocked Arsenal out of the FA cup with a convincing 4-0 rout. Fletcher was on the scoresheet twice and Rooney and Nani made up the total. Most of the goals came early on, Rooney on 16, Fletcher on 20 and Nani on 38 but Arsenal’s chance for a revival or at least to get some dignity back took a blow when Eboue was sent off on 49 minutes for a clumsy challenge on Evra. Fletcher wrapped things up in the 74th minute. Wenger tried to bring on some more firepower but left it a little late, that’s the way it goes when you have several competitions to think about.
Check out the highlights below
Also some of the goals in more detail.
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2-0
3-0
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In one of the many mouth-watering clashes of this weekend, Liverpool will play host as they square off with Manchester United on Sunday. Liverpool are coming off the back of a 4-0 thrashing of Marseille which should definitely boost their confidence but I don’t think you can compare Manchester United to Marseille at the moment.
Manchester are sitting in second place with 48 points while Liverpool are only two places behind with 45 points. A win for Liverpool will tie them on points while Man U has a good chance to open up a 6 point gap and claim the top of the table (depending on the outcome of the Arsenal/Chelsea match).
Ferdinand and Vidic are expected to start in the heart of Manchester United’s defence and Hargreaves and Anderson will probably run the midfield. Torres will probably start for Liverpool as he’s in blazing form right now (interestingly Ferguson has admitted that he tried to sign Torres for years before Rafa was able to snap him up, perhaps due to the Spanish connection). Mascherano is apparently fully fit and ready to go after some doubts as to whether he would start (he was limping about during the UEFA CL match after taking a knock). Hyypia and Carragher will most likely have to content with Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo. A job that I don’t envy at all, especially considering the latter may walk away with world player of the year the next day.
Things that may unsettle the Liverpool camp include Sissoko’s dissatisfaction with the coach for giving him very little playing time recently. He has found himself always behind Steven Gerard, Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso. He seems to be fed up and will more that likely leave during the summer. Rafa is also under great pressure to produce the results after altercations with the club owners. Apparently he has a meeting following the game which could decide his fate. That’s a whole lotta pressure.
It’s alway tough to play Liverpool at home and neither Arsenal, nor Chelsea have been able to crack them this season. But I have a feeling the Manchester are up to the task.
So the big games of the weekend have been played and the battle for the top of the table fought. Interestingly both of these matches ended in draws and little ground was made for any of these teams. Inter vs Juve ended 1-1 with Inter retaining it’s lead at the top and Juve dropping one place to forth. Roma failed to capitalise on the chance and instead lost it’s place to Fiorentina by throwing away a two goal lead, a draw with Empoli the result. Arsenal and Manchester United remain as they were in first and second position respectively, although Arsenal still has that game in hand.
Rooney scored first (well really it was a Gallas own goal with little he could do about it) for Manchester United towards the end of the first half but the unstoppable Cesc Fabregas pulled Arsenal level soon after with a calm finish after receiving the ball near the penalty spot. Christiano Ronaldo looked to have won the game for Man U, scoring in the 82nd minute but Gallas made up for his earlier mishap by volleying in a goal which Van Der Sar seemed to have saved but the ball was already well into the goal.
In the other big match, Julio Cruz put Inter in front just before half-time, continuing his strange ability to consistently score against Juve. It wasn’t enough though as Mauro Camoranesi equalised in the 77th minute to snatch a share of the spoils. Both teams were playing fairly cautiously although it was clear that Inter was in control of the match, nearly scoring again on several occasions after the first goal. Raneiri made a couple of changes which ended up being the perfect tactic and provided the equaliser. Iaquinta and Camoranesi were brought on in the last half an hour and combined to create Juve’s goal. It seems that Inter will have more competition this year and the Scudetto won’t come as easily.
As I posted earlier, Manchester United were able to seal another 1-0 result at home against Roma. A Wayne Rooney effort made the difference.
Dynamo Kyiv faced off against Sporting Lisbon with a score that ending 2-1 in favour of Lisbon. The Kyiv goal was quite spectacular with a backheal assist. This left Group F with Manchester United comfortably on top, Roma and Sporting equal on points in 2nd and 3rd respectively (goal difference helping Roma). While Kyiv sit on the bottom with no points at all and a very difficult campaign ahead of them.
Rangers played a spectacular match against Lyon and were able to brush them aside 3-0 in France for some valuable points. Very strange indeed to see Lyon so overwhelmed. Puyol scored the first goal for Barca against Stuttgart after the keeper couldn’t hold on to a Ronaldinho header. The match ended 2-0 when the man of the moment, Messi, slammed home a Henry cut-back.
Robin van Persie slotted a nice goal after Adebayor performed a cut-back of his own to show he’s learnt a few things from the departed Henry. The final score was 1-0 to Arsenal over Steaua Bucuresti. Sevilla defeated Slavia Praha 4-2 with Fabiano scoring some nice goals (one leaving the keeper for dead). CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Inter were able to carry on their good form from earlier in the week where they destroyed Roma in a 4-1 drubbing. More importantly it was the form of Ibrahimovic which continues to win games for Inter, a brace from him sealed the score at 2-0. Check out the highlights for a truly spectacular finish on the second goal.
