CL ~ Manchester United vs Benfica - Nov 22
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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2011
Manchester United vs Benfica
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Time: 3:45 am - (Live) (Wed Morning)
Mio Channel 110 / 102 in HD
Champions League Game 05
Manchester United :
De Gea, Ferdinand, Jones, Fabio, Evra, Nani, Fletcher, Park, Carrick, Berbatov, Young, Anderson, Giggs, Valencia, Macheda, Rooney, Hernandez, Diouf, Lindegaard.
Vidic, Smalling, Cleverley, Owen, Welbeck - Out
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Manchester United 2 Benfica 2: Jones and De Gea errors leave Reds on knife-edge
Own goal: Jones directs the ball past De Gea to hand the Portuguese side an early lead
Red alert: Ferdinand's mistake allowed Aimar to equalise
Benfica 9 pts
Manchester United 9 pts
FC Basel 8pts
Otelul Galati 0 pts
And so to Switzerland in December, where Manchester United have left themselves something still to do. A draw against Basle will be enough to see Sir Alex Ferguson's side go through, but almost certainly not as winners of Champions League Group C.
That honour is set to go to last night's opponents Benfica, who have already qualified and will be expected to beat the minnows from Romania, Otelul Galati.
It didn't have to be this way. United were drawn in arguably the easiest group in this season's competition but their defensive frailties were exposed again last night, just as they were by Basle here in their opening home game of the campaign.
It leaves the English champions at risk of an early exit from the competition for the first time since 2005, when defeat at the hands of Benfica proved fatal.
A draw - their third of this uninspiring European campaign - may not be quite as damaging but United have certainly made life difficult for themselves, and did so from the moment Phil Jones put through his own net inside four minutes.
A rare Dimitar Berbatov goal in Europe and Darren Fletcher's second-half strike put United ahead but they were pegged back again by Pablo Aimar. Ferguson was defiant afterwards.
The United manager said: 'The chips are down for us but I have every confidence in my team. It's a cruel game at times and it was cruel for us tonight. I have no fault with my players at all. They deserved better.
'We got off to a bad start, conceding a goal after four minutes. It does take the wind from your sails.'
United's cause was not helped by the absence of captain Nemanja Vidic, serving the second game of his suspension, and top scorer Wayne Rooney, who failed to recover from the hip injury he picked up at Swansea on Saturday.
Ashley Young was deployed in a central role behind Berbatov but they had hardly touched the ball when Benfica silenced Old Trafford.
Nicolas Gaitan, the man with the £40million buy-out clause who has been linked with the Barclays Premier League champions in recent weeks, set up the goal. He received the ball after running into space wide on the right, and he cut inside before crossing to the edge of the six-yard box.
Jones's view appeared to be blocked by Rio Ferdinand as the 19-year-old defender stuck out his left foot and diverted the ball past a stranded David de Gea. Safe to say his first goal in senior football will not be a happy memory.
Berbatov struck on the half-hour mark, although the Bulgarian appeared to be marginally offside when he met Nani's cross with a glancing header just inside Artur's left-hand post. Amazingly it was his first goal in 21 hours and two minutes of Champions League football since he scored against Celtic at Old Trafford in October 2008.
Fair play to Berbatov. When the moment came there was no tearing off his shirt, no kissing the club badge. Just a wave of the hand, ushering his team-mates back to the centre circle to get on with the job.
He knew there was work to do and so it proved. Almost immediately, Artur came out to block when Berbatov sent Young clean through, and the Benfica keeper made another instinctive save to deny Fabio da Silva early in the second half before he was finally beaten again on the hour.
The visitors from Portugal scrambled the ball out only as far as Patrice Evra, and the French defender's cross back into the penalty area picked out Darren Fletcher's run perfectly. The Scot saw his first effort brilliantly kept out by Artur but seized on the loose ball to score into an empty net. The lead lasted 80 seconds.
De Gea's distribution was one of the reasons United chose him as Edwin van der Sar's successor, but even Ferguson admitted the young Spaniard should have launched a clearance kick out of play instead of trying to knock it to Fabio.
Bruno Cesar intercepted his pass and broke into the box. Ferdinand failed to clear the cross and served up the ball on a plate to leave Aimar with the simple task of lifting his shot into the roof of the net from close range.
If Berbatov thought he'd had a long wait, this was Aimar's first Champions League goal for seven years, and a priceless one at that.
'It was very disappointing,' said Ferguson. 'There was something a bit freakish about it, to be honest with you. An own goal and then a bad kick out from David de Gea.'
Michael Carrick was shown a yellow card that will rule him out of the final group game in Basle, which would have been a whole lot more comfortable if Berbatov had not volleyed over from close range with only Artur to beat 12 minutes from time.
It was agony for the Bulgarian, and frustrating for United. It could get worse.
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lai FC Basel
make this games ur win -
I have a bad bad feeling united will lose to basel
if this happens, then united will be out of CL in the group stage since 2005, when they lost to benfica at the last group game.
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Originally posted by Rooney_07:
I have a bad bad feeling united will lose to basel
if this happens, then united will be out of CL in the group stage since 2005, when they lost to benfica at the last group game.
it is okay la.. lose lose lor.. this season they already got the biggest win and lost in EPL.. no big fuss..
Maybe they focus on domestic double..
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y rest rooney?
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Originally posted by iceFatboy:
y rest rooney?
cos SAF is looney -
rooney was unfit.
even if united were to progress, assuming benfica topping the group, they will face the likes of RM, barcelona or Milan. thats the price for not finishing top of your group.
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If United do manage to get through, as 2nd place in their group, the likely opponents waiting for them are...
Bayern Munich
Internazionale
Real Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen
Barcelona
and... Apoel Nicosia, or
Zenit St Petersburg and FC Porto
Chelsea also will most likely have the same opponents only Benfica switch with Leverkusen.
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err.. if MU goes on a rampage @ basel???
from your list, zocoss, every team seems lethal..
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Chicha up for Basel challenge
Javier Hernandez would be a fitting hero on 7 December if he scores for United in Switzerland, a country synonymous with precision.
The prolific Mexican has netted the Reds’ only goal in three of his last four away games – the equaliser against Liverpool and the winners at Everton and Swansea. His uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time could be crucial again when Sir Alex Ferguson's men meet FC Basel for a place in the Champions League's last 16.
"We will go to Basel to win the game," Chicharito told MUTV, dismissing thoughts that United may settle for the point sufficient to go through with new Group C leaders Benfica.
"We have lost two home points against Benfica but this is football. Benfica are a strong team, unbeaten this season, and they played very well against us.
"We are still in the fight, we have nine points and we will go to Switzerland to get another three. We are Manchester United and we never give up, we work very hard for every game."
If the Reds go through as runners-up, the leaders of the other groups will lie in wait in the draw. Currently they include Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, as well as two teams United would not be allowed to face, fellow English clubs Arsenal and Chelsea.
"First we need to qualify and then look at which teams we will play," added Chicharito.
VS 
