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FA Cup: away vs Southampton
Finally, we could see a flowing match. Manchester United beat Southampton at St Mary's by 3 goals. It was a match for the third round of the FA Cup.
Southampton plays in the lower division, the Championship, so it was a comfortable game. The initial XI were: Van der Sar as goalkeeper; Neville, Evans, Vidic and O'Shea as defenders; Nani, Anderson, Carrick and Giggs as midfielders; Welbeck and Dimitar as forwards. Tévez was still on Argentina.
The odds were even better when a rival player was expelled for a foul on Vidic in the 37th minute. The goals were scored by: Welbeck in the 20th minute, Nani with a penalty in the 48th minute (because a rival defender used his arm to stop the ball when they jumped as a wall for Nani’s free kick), and Gibson (who entered in place of Carrick) in the 81st minute.
Dimitar was very active in the match. Although he did not score, many reports think of him as the man of the match. In the second half I saw a few mistakes and maybe Rooney (who entered in place of Welbeck) was angry at Dimitar for missing a couple of chances.
This is what other reports have to say about Dimitar’s performance:
In BBC is rated as man of the match by the fans with 7.79.
From The Telegraph: “Dimitar Berbatov's skill spurs on United against Southampton… Any glimmer of an insurrection was brusquely ended in particular by Dimitar Berbatov, a magnificent centre forward who embodied the gulf between the champions of the world and the fallen Saints. At £30 million, Berbatov is valued even higher than Southampton’s substantial debts… Southampton found the task of marking the elusive Berbatov akin to juggling jelly fish. They simply could not control him… Inspired by Berbatov, United simply outclassed Southampton.”
From ManUtd.com: “A pleasure to watch, the Bulgarian’s flicks cut open Southampton’s defence on more than one occasion. So confident in possession, he rarely gave the ball away.”
From Manchester Evening News: “8 Berbatov: The Bulgarian's passing was imperious and Reds should have added more to his assist column… Berbatov was creating opportunities and also having them carved out for him, but, despite it all looking so easy for him, he couldn't turn United's complete dominance into more goals in the first half.”
From Goal.com: “7 Ought to have scored when set up well by O’Shea but Davis saved. Some lovely touches, created several opportunities and Southampton struggled to get near him.”
From The Independent: “Down to 10 men, struggling to get the ball off Dimitar Berbatov… At times Berbatov and Michael Carrick did not look like they came from another league, rather their touch on the ball suggested that they came from another planet… Man of the match: Berbatov.”
From the Daily Star: “From the kick-off, Saints’ youngsters struggled to get to grips with United’s fluid movement with Dimitar Berbatov ghosting his way around the pitch.”
Before the match, the draw was made to see which teams play each other in the fourth round. ManUtd will face Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford in that instance on the weekend of Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 January.
Next match: Wednesday vs Derby for the Carling Cup.
Southampton plays in the lower division, the Championship, so it was a comfortable game. The initial XI were: Van der Sar as goalkeeper; Neville, Evans, Vidic and O'Shea as defenders; Nani, Anderson, Carrick and Giggs as midfielders; Welbeck and Dimitar as forwards. Tévez was still on Argentina.
The odds were even better when a rival player was expelled for a foul on Vidic in the 37th minute. The goals were scored by: Welbeck in the 20th minute, Nani with a penalty in the 48th minute (because a rival defender used his arm to stop the ball when they jumped as a wall for Nani’s free kick), and Gibson (who entered in place of Carrick) in the 81st minute.
Dimitar was very active in the match. Although he did not score, many reports think of him as the man of the match. In the second half I saw a few mistakes and maybe Rooney (who entered in place of Welbeck) was angry at Dimitar for missing a couple of chances.
This is what other reports have to say about Dimitar’s performance:
In BBC is rated as man of the match by the fans with 7.79.
From The Telegraph: “Dimitar Berbatov's skill spurs on United against Southampton… Any glimmer of an insurrection was brusquely ended in particular by Dimitar Berbatov, a magnificent centre forward who embodied the gulf between the champions of the world and the fallen Saints. At £30 million, Berbatov is valued even higher than Southampton’s substantial debts… Southampton found the task of marking the elusive Berbatov akin to juggling jelly fish. They simply could not control him… Inspired by Berbatov, United simply outclassed Southampton.”
From ManUtd.com: “A pleasure to watch, the Bulgarian’s flicks cut open Southampton’s defence on more than one occasion. So confident in possession, he rarely gave the ball away.”
From Manchester Evening News: “8 Berbatov: The Bulgarian's passing was imperious and Reds should have added more to his assist column… Berbatov was creating opportunities and also having them carved out for him, but, despite it all looking so easy for him, he couldn't turn United's complete dominance into more goals in the first half.”
From Goal.com: “7 Ought to have scored when set up well by O’Shea but Davis saved. Some lovely touches, created several opportunities and Southampton struggled to get near him.”
From The Independent: “Down to 10 men, struggling to get the ball off Dimitar Berbatov… At times Berbatov and Michael Carrick did not look like they came from another league, rather their touch on the ball suggested that they came from another planet… Man of the match: Berbatov.”
From the Daily Star: “From the kick-off, Saints’ youngsters struggled to get to grips with United’s fluid movement with Dimitar Berbatov ghosting his way around the pitch.”
Before the match, the draw was made to see which teams play each other in the fourth round. ManUtd will face Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford in that instance on the weekend of Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 January.
Next match: Wednesday vs Derby for the Carling Cup.
Comment
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Comment by Andrea on January 8, 2009 at 11:05pm - I saw the entire game and Dimitar was fantastic, he only missed the chance to score
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