Manchester United will go into the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with a one-goal advantage, following their victory over Arsenal last night.John O’Shea struck from a Michael Carrick cross to give the current European Football champions the most fragile of first leg leads as Sir Alex Ferguson expressed his disappointment at not killing off the tie last night.
United will be disappointed as they dominated the game from start to finish. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez both had good chances to score but the brilliance of Arsenal goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia, meant Arsenal are still in with a fighting chance.
Football took the centre stage in this match as opposed to the aggression and passion we saw in Tuesday’s encounter between Barcelona and Chelsea. Both sides looked a little tentative and the match up did not really produce what all of the previews were predicting.
Arsenal’s inexperience in defence was plain and it could have been a different story if Cesc Fabregas had the ability to put the ball into the corner of the goal as opposed to along the ground and into Edwin Van Der Saar’s arms.
Ferguson said in his reaction, as reported in The Times: “We had good chances and their goalkeeper has had some fantastic saves, our performance level was very good and we have given ourselves a very good chance, but the tie is not over, of course.”
Carlos Tevez did himself no harm with a splendid performance. The Argentine never stopped running from the first whistle and shook his head in obvious disappointment when he was replaced in the second half. The Old Trafford crowd shouted consistently the familiar chants of ‘Argentina,’ and Tevez can be pleased.
The only set back for United is an injury to defender, Rio Ferdinand. Ferdinand left the pitch holding his ribs and despite apparent enthusiasm to return to the field of battle he was promptly sent for an x-ray to determine the severity of the damage to his cracked ribs.
For Arsenal the mood must be fairly bouyant. They could easily have left this tie at a three or four goal disadvantage but were able to stay relatively compact and concede just the one.
At the Emirates Arsenal are capable of doing just about anything so it will be interesting to see how they play and risk the chance of an away United goal in going for the win.
Wenger said: “They started stronger than us and in terms of clear-cut chances they were on top. But I am convinced you will see a very different Arsenal team at the Emirates and I am convinced we can reverse this result. We have the quality to do it and we believe at home we can do that.”
It all makes for a mouth watering clash on Tuesday but both teams have important Premier League duties to take care of before hand. These cannot be overlooked as the Champions League story for this season turns one page closer to its ending.
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