Match Report / Portsmouth (H)
It was a day of great significance and remembrance for football fans around the country. The 6th of February, the day of the Munich Air Disaster that took place 52 years ago, that took away the Flowers of Manchester so prematurely. A minute’s silence was observed before kick off, and the camera’s as expected, focused a lot on Sir Bobby Charlton, for whom this is such a poignant day. After a magnificent performance away to Arsenal last weekend, and Chelsea’s failure to win against Hull City, this was a great chance to go top, albeit with a game in hand. Chelsea are due to play Arsenal on Sunday, and that also provides an opportunity to stay top. Nani’s brilliant recent form warranted another starting spot, this time in his more usual role on the left side of midfield. Antonio Valencia started after a few games, and so did Dimitar Berbatov. The centre of midfield consisted of Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick, and club captain Gary Neville replaced Rafael in right back. Portsmouth hadn’t won a league match at Old Trafford since the 1950s, so fans were expecting a win, and a big win at that – and they weren’t disappointed.

As expected, United completely dominated the possession, and it became a matter of when and not if the first goal would come. Valencia was the source of much danger down the right wing and Belhadj struggled against his pace on more than one occasion. Nani once again started brightly and his newfound confidence certainly showed today, taking on players at every opportunity. In light of the continuous onslaught from the Manchester United attack, the analysts and commentators believed that Pompey would eventually crumble. This did not happen for a while; however, and instead we had a decent shout for a penalty turned down when Frederic Piquionne pulled down Wayne Rooney in the box.

On 40 minutes however, the breakthrough finally came. Darren Fletcher picked up the ball outside the box, and picked out Wayne Rooney with an inch-perfect cross, and the striker managed to head the ball past David James and into the net. Rooney’s unbelievable form continues, and this is certainly heading towards Rooney’s most memorable season yet at Manchester United. This brought some degree of relief for the United fans, and these were further eased at the stroke of half time, when the team went 2-0 up. Nani dribbled with the ball down the left and darted into the box, and looked to centre the ball after bamboozling the Pompey defender with a million stepovers. His cross found Anthony Vanden Borre however, and deflected into the goal. For the second week running, it seems that good work from Nani will go down as just an own goal. 2-0 into half time, and the team looked well on course to 3 points.

After half time, Pompey did show some resilience when Vanden Borre tried a few speculative shots, both nothing that concerned van der Sar too much. On 59 minutes however, Michael Carrick put to bed any further fears when his long range effort took a deflection off Richard Hughes and looped beyond David James an into the net for a third goal. Although the shot was goalbound anyway, it will undoubtedly go down as a Hughes own goal as far as the official stats are concerned. Not much happened for sometime, and Fletcher and Carrick seemed happy to just play short passes and keep hold of possession. Dimitar Berbatov had a great chance to get a goal for himself when Neville made a great foray into the box and crossed, but he missed unbelievably from just 6 yards out. There was one other chance for Portsmouth when Jamie O’Hara was played through, but Jonny Evans cleared his goalbound shot off the line. Soon after however, the relatively quiet Berbatov, held up the ball inside the box, shifted outwards and smashed a right-footed shot into the bottom of the net to claim his 8th goal of the season. The rout was completed on 69 minutes when Wilson only managed to miskick a Patrice Evra cross into his own net to make it 5-0, and a hattrick of own goals. Substitute Mame Biram Diouf had a great chance late on when he did brilliantly to get to the other side of his marker, but only managed to overhit his shot over the bar and into the stands – but I guess the fans can forgive him for that.

All in all, that wrapped up an easy win, and a vital three points for the team, and the anti-Glazer brigade brigade were at it again today, loud as ever. The renown post-Christmas form is well and truly on, and lets hope that come Sunday’s clash between Arsenal and Chelsea, Arsenal absolutely “batter them”!

Best Moment: Perfectly observed silence from both fans

Worst Moment: The tragedy itself

Men of the Match: The Busby Babes

Written by Sownak27