Carrick the hero against Wolfsburg
A lively European night at Old Trafford saw Manchester United, the English champions, taking on Vfl Wolfsburg, the German champions, in an encounter that was billed to be an exhibition of attacking football. Before the game, Armin Veh, the Wolfsburg manager, had promised an attacking approach to the game. And for once, an opposing manager did not disappoint. Unlike a number of visiting teams before them, Wolfsburg took the game to United and arguably had the better of the first half. However, in the end, Manchester United’s class and determination proved too much for them to handle and inspite of all their bravado, Wolfsburg will be going back to Germany empty handed after suffering a 2-1 defeat in Manchester.
Before the game, I had talked of Wolfsburg’s prolific striking duo of Grafite and Edin Dzeko and how they were going to keep our defenders on their toes. True to their promise, both strikers were a handful for our central defensive partnership of Vida and Rio. It was Grafite’s persistence and Vida’s uncertainty in defence that combined to hand Wolfsburg their first opening and had Christian Gentner’s shot not been weak, we would have gone down pretty early. Buoyed by that early opening, Wolfsburg continued to be chirpy and confident throughout the entire half. On the other hand, our play early on was erratic with all players giving away the ball regularly. It was not until Michael Owen’s substitution and Berbatov’s introduction that United got into their groove. Berba’s passes and flicks got United going with his ingenious backheel setting up Valencia for a one-on-one chance with Wolfsburg’s keeper. Valencia’s finish, however, was extremely disappointing and questions will continue to be asked about his goal scoring prowess. The only other notable chance of the first half fell to Michael Carrick (another product of Berba’s awe-inspiring creativity) but Carrick’s shot was easily saved by their keeper.
The second half began just as the first half had trailed off- full of action and some end to end stuff. It was Wolfsburg who drew first blood, with Edin Dzeko towering over Patrice Evra and powering in Hasebe’s cross into the top corner. However, instead of being deflated by this goal, United replied with much greater purpose and were level soon enough. Anderson was brought down just outside the area and Giggsy’s free-kick was deflected in off the wall. From there on, it was just a matter of time before United’s second and the crowd sensing the gathering of momentum egged United on with chants of ‘attack attack’. Rooney very nearly delivered with a superbly struck right-footed effort that sailed just over the bar. However, it wasn’t long before Michael Carrick turned in a well-struck and well-placed finish after some good work from Berba and Giggs to hand United the lead and from there on it was a canter to the finish.
The most heartening thing for United was the return to form of Michael Carrick. Carrick was his old usual self, whipping in cross field balls, passing around crisply and capping off a fine performance with a well taken goal. Ando was on and off during the entire game, producing his trademark bursts of pace at some times and giving away possession at others. Valencia was very stale again and needs to add a few more tricks to his armoury to make himself less predictable. The defence was a little uncertain at times but with such quality forwards around some uncertainty was inevitable. Kusczcak was assured in goal but surprisingly has already been left out the weekend clash with Sunderland.
Michael Owen, meanwhile, has contracted a groin strain and will probably be out for two-three weeks. Given Owen’s well documented trysts with injuries, let’s just hope that this latest strain is not a sign of him getting back to his injured-best.
All in all, it was a wonderful result against quality opposition for us and if we keep this level of performances going, there is no doubt in my mind that we will end up topping the group. Having said that, I expect a cracker of a game when we travel to Germany and I am already rubbing my palms in anticipation of another great European night.
