Posts Tagged ‘CSKA Moscow’

Manchester United & City Hope For The Best

Posted: December 8, 2015 in Champions League, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Manchester City hoped that Sevilla would do them a favour. They weren’t asking for much, just that a team who were already out of the competition should have enough pride and desire to please their fans and beat Juventus, in the process denying them top spot and a marginally easier opponent in the first knockout round.

City’s deal in all this was to beat Borussia Moenchengladbach, thereby enabling them to finish top and get the marginally easier opponent in the first knockout round.

Manchester United hoped that CSKA Moscow would do them a favour. They also weren’t asking for much, just that a team who were already out of the competition should have enough pride and desire to please their fans and beat PSV Eindhoven, in the process denying them qualification to the first knockout round and allowing United to qualify even if they could only manage a draw or even a defeat against Wolfsburg.

What United were hoping for was a safety net in case they couldn’t beat Wolfsburg which, as it turned out, they couldn’t. (more…)

Manchester’s United & City Show How Not To Do It

Posted: November 25, 2015 in Champions League, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Manchester City had already qualified for the knockout stage of the Champion’s League by the time they arrived in Turin to play Juventus.

This had been achieved by their fine away form in beating both Borussia Moenchengladbach and Sevilla and was in no way thanks to their patchy home form where they had already lost to tonight’s opponent. Unfortunately, their patchy home form became their patchy away form and they lost 1-0 at the Juventus stadium.

Manchester United knew, when they arrived at the Lowry hotel in Salford, that beating PSV Eindhoven tonight would mean that they would qualify for the next round as well.

Their passage had been based on reasonable home form where they have already beaten CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg, not their patchy away form where they had only collected one point. Unfortunately, their patchy away form became their patchy home form and they drew 0-0 in a boring game at Old Trafford. (more…)

Manchester’s European Winners

Posted: November 4, 2015 in Champions League, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Well, that was better! United actually attacked at Old Trafford and won a game by scoring one more than the opposition. They also managed to win by scoring one more than zero so no need to get too carried away. Being quietly optimistic I would say that the garden has one more rose than it did before.

Louis van Gaal’s theory was proved to be spot on. No one really believed him when he said that, to win a football match, you just had to score one more than the team you were playing against, but tonight his genius was demonstrated emphatically.

His decision to replace Martial with Fellaini was also inspired. Mere mortals, at this stage, thought that if a forward was to be taken off it should be Rooney, who had done very little, rather than Martial who had caused one or two problems to the CSKA defence. In fact, mere mortals wondered why, when a goal was needed, a striker was taken off for a midfielder at all! Worry not, King Louis had everything under control. (more…)