Portsmouth 1 v 3 Manchester United Fratton Park, Portsmouth
18th February 2006
Manchester United could have hit Portsmouth for six last night, but instead chose to take a bit of a breather at half-time, having gone in three-goals to the advange.
The comfortable win, secured with a brace of goals from Ronaldo, supplemented by van Nistelrooy, left United 12 points adrift of Chelsea - if only we'd taken full points at Blackburn and Man City...
Portsmouth had five new players out on the pitch, and it was probably the fact that they haven't played together that much that led to the lack of cohesion, and ultimately goals.
The first came on 18 minutes, when Giggs, who was playing centre-midfield becasue of the current crisis, ran through three defenders and knocked the ball goalwards. It hit the bar but rebounded into van Nistelrooy's path, who was able to nod down for a well-worked but seemingly too easily made first goal.
This obviously added to United's confidence, whilst they were hardly tested at the back. Ronaldo shot close before launching a 40 yards stunning goal with a powerful left-foot drive. Kiely got his hands to it but was powerless to stop the ball just going right through them, and into the back of the net!
The game was sealed on half-time when Rooney set Ronaldo clear, and the Portuguese hero knocked it past Kiely with ease from the right-hand side of the six yard box.
United then subbed van der sar and Giggs ahead of their FA Cup clash against Liverpool next week, and were happy to see out the game with three goals, although Ronaldo nearly completed his hatrick with a direct free-kick in the dying minutes that flew off the bar!
Portsmouth: Kiely, Pamarot, O'Brien, Primus, Taylor, O'Neil, Davis (Griffin 55), Pedro Mendes, D'Alessandro (Routledge 45), Mwaruwari, LuaLua.
Subs Not Used: Ashdown, Karadas, Hughes.
Goals: Taylor 87.
Man Utd: Van der Sar (Howard 45), Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Silvestre, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Giggs (Smith 45), Park, Rooney (Saha 82), van Nistelrooy.
