http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1004/1004140_fergies_seventh_heaven.html
read this superbly written report..
Fergie's seventh heaven
Stuart Brennan
11/ 4/2007
ASKED whether he had been to see the Pope while in Rome last week,
Sir Alex Ferguson said that he had cut out the middle man and had
granted an audience to the Almighty Himself.
We thought he was joking.
But when Manchester United served up football which was undoubtedly
made in heaven, you could start to believe that there truly had
been some divine inspiration at work.
And the hosts of Old Trafford sang hosanna.
Not since Moses was a lad - Remi Moses, that is, obviously - had
United overturned a first leg deficit in European football, other
than a qualifying round victory over Zalaegerszegi four years
ago.
But on a sparkling night in Manchester 16, they not only overturned
Roma's 2-1 lead, they flattened it, tied it in a knot and had it
bagged up and buried by half-time.
Echoes
Last night's breathtaking dismissal of one of Serie A's finest had
none of the enduring drama of that last spectacular reversal of a
first leg defeat, when Bryan Robson hauled United back from 2-0
down to Barcelona to win 3-0 and send a packed stadium into tears
and pitch-side somersaults. On that night, there was nail-biting
and nerve-shredding right until the final whistle.
But it had some echoes of that glorious night.
Before that game, United fans gazed at their programmes and
wondered how on earth little Moses - all Afro hair and bad attitude
- could hope to live with the football god which was
Maradona.
The answer was a large dose of Mancunian snarl and snap, hustling
and badgering the brilliant Argentine into errors.
A lingering look at last night's team-sheet brought on similar
feelings of anxiety and anguish.
United were ravaged by injury and ruffled by two consecutive
defeats, to the point where the subs' bench was populated by the
unknown and the unlikely.
With Alan Smith coming back from injury, John O'Shea slotting in at
right-back - hardly his best position - and Darren Fletcher and
Michael Carrick handed a tough midfield job, there was every reason
to be pessimistic.
And yet the sight of Fletcher digging into Francesco Totti,
admittedly a mere demi-god in comparison to Maradona, while all
around him red shirts bristled with serious intent, was enough to
lift the spirits.
What turned out to be a feast of Champions League football was
almost soured before a ball had been kicked as mobs of angry United
fans roamed around outside the stadium, intent on revenge for the
bitter scenes in Rome last week.
A few innocent Italians received bloody noses, missiles were thrown
and threats exchanged. And all the while, the real culprits, the
thugs in uniform who laid into the United fans last week, were
probably at home, watching it all unfold on the telly, their
overtime pay packets bulging in their pockets.
It is time UEFA made countries which cannot control their police
pay for such outrages. If English clubs were banned from Europe in
the 80s for the violence of some of their fans, the same should
apply to state hooligans.
Unless the authorities take action, someone will die - the
situation goes beyond football.
The only positive to come out of last week's horrible scenes and
the misguided attempts at revenge was that it helped to give the
atmosphere inside Old Trafford a real edge.
Frenzy
The club itself got it hopelessly wrong again, thinking that loud
tannoy music and a pitch-side interview with Wilf McGuinness was
the way to whip the masses into a frenzy.
When the team on the pitch is positively crackling with static, and
lightning bolts are hitting the Roma net with frequency and
ferocity, artificial attempts at getting things going just look
pathetic. There were heroes in red shirts everywhere you looked,
not least Smith, who defied all logic to put in a first half
display of muscular poise and slick touch which showed that he can
be a serious factor in United's run-in to the end of the
season.
Michael Carrick came of age, a paragon of composure and invention
in midfield, and capped it all with two of the best goals you will
see all season.
And Cristiano Ronaldo will get plenty of the limelight too for his
goals.
Wayne Rooney said on the day before this game that he felt Ronaldo
was by far the best player in the world and was perhaps the one man
who could single-handedly win it.
It was as bold a piece of Scouse con-artistry as you are likely to
see, and it appeared that the Italians fell for it big time.
While the Roma midfield and defence gazed worriedly towards the
Portuguese, the slight figure of Ryan Giggs was running them
ragged.
Too old to play two games in three days, Giggs had sat on the bench
at Fratton Park as his tired team-mates slumped to defeat.
You could say that the rest did him good. He roved down the left,
he raided down the right, he terrorised the centre.
And once Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney entered the mood, the Italians
were in serious trouble.
For a while it seemed like the club record win, a 10-0 demolition
of hapless Anderlecht by the Busby Babes over 50 years ago, was in
jeopardy as the Reds raced to a 6-0 lead within an hour.
Roma spoiled some of that fun with a goal of their own, but the joy
remained unabated.
Jose Mourinho said at the weekend that he wished his Chelsea team
was playing United next week, after that showdown was postponed to
accommodate the FA Cup semi-finals. Still fancy it now, Jose?
