 |
| Just beautiful |
The anticipation of the match itself was enough to occupy my morning. Pretty much all I did up until lunch break was read articles on Manchester United and/or Real Madrid. One of them was on how Real Madrid helped rebuild Manchester United after the Munich air disaster, which is very touching and surprisingly I've never heard of before today.
Once the lineups were announced, I couldn't contain my excitement/nervousness/whatever it was that I felt. I liked Fergie's attacking team; at the same time very worried of Rafael having to contain Ronaldo. I thought Jones was probably tasked to shadow Ronaldo as he successfully did to Fellaini this past weekend.
Unfortunately, the referee made a few questionable decisions in the game. Two of United's yellow cards, to van Persie and Valencia, were soft and of Sergio Ramos' play-acting. I thought Evra was through on goal when Varane fouled him; that's at least a booking, possibly a red if he was the last defender. And he blew the freaking whistle when United has a corner to take! What.the.fuck?! I'm sure there are decisions that go against Real too but I'm a biased United fan so I forget those.
And now, the match highlights in GIF form:
 |
| De Gea made a wonderful safe early on in the game |
 |
| Welbeck opened the scoring in the 20th minute of the game with a simple, beautiful header |
 |
| Ronaldo equalizes ten minutes later. His knees were level with Evra's head. The man defies gravity. |
 |
| Because saving with hands is overrated |
I thought 1-1 was a fair result. Real Madrid did have more possession and chances, but I feel that United held their own, and had more clear chances than Real Madrid. We forced them to take half chances and long shots from difficult angles. RvP could/should have won us the match [1, 2, 3], but Ronaldo also had a wonderful free kick that hit the roof of the net.
De Gea had a fantastic game! Welbeck also did really well. It was tough because United didn't get a lot of possession. Rooney wasn't playing his best game but as always he was working his ass off all over the pitch. Kagawa was a bit disappointing.
The second leg is shaping up to be an amazing match. This game was played in a high tempo from start to finish, attacking end to end, highly entertaining throughout. I can't wait!
SAF: "Ronaldo is sitting in our dressing room at the moment, talking to the lads. I'm proud to see how he's flourished."
— Jamie Reid (@JamieRfootball) February 13, 2013
Side note: I can't believe it's been 4 years since Ronaldo left us!
No comments:
Post a Comment