Manchester United 3 - 0 Portsmouth
Saturday 3rd December 2005
Old Trafford, Manchester
Manchester United started the game knowing that three
points would take them further away from rivals
Arsenal, who had feebly surrendered against Bolton
earlier in the day. The late kick-off also ensured
that they knew Chelsea's result, and knew that three
points were vital to their Championship chase.
Fergie had flown across to Belfast for George Best's
funeral service, which was held in the afternoon, and
was rushed back to the UK by a charter plane, in time
for him to take charge of the match.
The match began with the sparkle Best has become known
for, with Giggs going close. It also began without
Cristiano, who started the game on the bench in
anticipation of Wednesday's big match against benfica,
which will be make or break for United in
Europe.
On 19 minutes, and after some champagne football from
the Reds, Scholes met a Rooney corner. This time it
was with his head rather than his trademark
thunder-volley, and he glanced the ball towards the
back-post and into the back of the net.
More could and should have followed, and it says much
about United's poor finishing and Ashdown's great
goalkeeping that they went into the break just a goal
up.
Ronaldo was introduced to the match on 65 minutes,
with Giggs' recently mended body in need of a
rest!
Suddenly the defenders were suffering a whole new
problem, with Ronaldo running at the on one side, and
Park and Rooney causing mischief on the other.
In the end, Ronaldo was crucial to killing off the
match. His throughball to fellow sub Louis Saha saw
the Frenchman under pressure. A defender cleanly
nicked the ball from Saha's feet, but the ball ran
straight into Rooney's path, and the fiery saviour
knocked it in from 18 yards with a powerful
strike.
The match was sewn up by van Nistelrroy's clever flick
over the keeper, and United will be hoping that a
similar result prevails on Wednesday, in United's
biggest test in Europe for a few
years.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre,
O'Shea (Richardson 45), Park (Saha 79), Smith,
Scholes, Giggs (Ronaldo 65), Rooney, van Nistelrooy.
