ALL SMILES
Yet with 11 minutes of normal time left, they looked as
if they had lost it.
Had Aston Villa held on to their 2-1 lead, United’s
confidence would have been in shreds after a defeat by a side that
had not won at Old Trafford in 26 years — and who were thrashed 5-0
on their previous outing at Anfield.
It would have been the first time United had lost three
consecutive league games since December 2001. And they would have
trailed cock-a-hoop Liverpool by two points with just one game in
hand.
All that now has changed.
Many people will still say there is a long way to go.
But having come back to win a game that looked out of their control
— and, until that last frantic push, playing as badly as they had
all season — they won’t let it slip now.
It wasn’t just United hauling themselves off the canvas
but the way in which they did it. Despite huge holes in their own
defence that left them open to the counter-attack, they still went
for broke.
In the finest traditions of the club. But what a way to
do it.
With two minutes left and United hunting a winner,
Ferguson sent on Danny Welbeck, 18, to join 17-year-old Federico
Macheda in attack.
We all know United is a club that encourages youth, but
this was taking it to extremes.
Perhaps, it was just making the right choice through
luck.
Whatever the cause, the magnitude of this victory
cannot be under-estimated.
Defeat would not only have convinced a Liverpool side
who had also left it late at Fulham 24 hours earlier that this was
finally their year. It would have also sent United into tomorrow’s
Champions League home game with Porto with renewed doubt.
As it is, they can now watch Liverpool and Chelsea tear
themselves to pieces over the next fortnight followed by Arsenal
making the trip to Anfield on April 21.
Meanwhile, most of the players they missed yesterday —
Rooney, Ferdinand, Scholes, Vidic and Berbatov — will be back.
Though after the stunning entry of young Macheda
yesterday, who needs Berbatov?
In one outrageous movement that turned the clock back
to the days of Johan Cruyff, the Italian wrote himself into United
folklore.
Like Michael Owen’s goal against Argentina at France
98, it’s hard to see this young man ever bettering it. It was an
extraordinary outcome to a game in which so many things had gone
wrong for United.
Ferguson appeared to have blundered by selecting Gary
Neville alongside Jonny Evans at centre-half. The defence — and
Neville in particular, until he was switched to right-back — were
all over the place.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who had given United the lead, was
feeling extremely sorry for himself, his head apparently already in
Madrid.
But Ronaldo responded with his second goal of the match
with his weaker left foot to set up United for a win that still
defies belief.
Liverpool, of course, will plough on. But if there was
a day when a team’s spirit was going to be broken it was
yesterday.
For so long it looked as if that team would be
United.
But if they can get out of the sort of hole they found
themselves in yesterday, it’s unlikely they will stumble into any
more between now and the end of the season.
