ROMA v MANCHESTER
UNITED
Preview:This is
the moment we all been waiting for and it is April and Champion's League quater
finals time as Europe hot shots look to go all the way. Roma is the sole
representive of Italy, and are currently second in their League to Champions
Inter, but they also have slim title hopes as they try and chase down leader
Inter. On the flip side of the coin you have us (Man Utd) reigning champions and
league leaders that have are really starting to play some faboulous football
that seems to be on another level.
I thought last week's Masch incident
tarnished our superb preformance, but there can be no dening it that we have
come good when it really matters. Roma are also a very attack minded team and
they will come at us with the likes of Mancini and Totti, and they really do
play with alot of width in their very entertaining style with wich they play in
italy and that saw them knock out Real Madrid.
The great thing for us is
thw emphatic victory against Villa where we scored goals and kept yet another
clean sheet. There is no doubt that going to Rome and looking for an away goal
will be prioty, and we do have every chance of getting the away goal. The only
question is whether we take a more pragmatic approch or play the 'cut throat'
way that has seen us crush many teams. Our last 4 away games we have won 2 nad
drew 2 all with scoring a goal or more and are yet to be beaten in the Elite
competition of Europe's best.
Wayne Rooney's confidence will be high and
he has rediscorved is goal scoring touch and more often that not that leads to a
great run of goal scoring. As usual there will be some selection problems in
midfield, because we have alot of our CM playing extremely well and Paul Scholes
seems to have redidcovered that midas touch again and he really does have
awesome technical abality. Young anderson certianly has bags of enery and
technical abality, but then again Carrick has really been on fire of late and
Hargo is still very capable.
I hope we go with a 4-4-2 formation and be
brave and play Rooney and Tevez with Ronaldo, because surely there is no rival
for that attacking trio in all of Europe. Tevez scored a vital away goal against
Lyon and you just have this feeling that he will come up with alot more
important goals before this season is out. VDs had a minor groin strain and Rio
was taken off as a precation for the Roma game.
Gary Neville has
recovered from his injury, but it seems that he lacks a bit of match fitness and
this is a difficult phase of the season to walk back into the team after a
lenghty term out, because the footy is really played at a very high intensity.
Every game is like a cup final now and we have reached the peak of our season
and this Champions league trophy is the one we really want to win, and we have
the squad to win this t\European title, therefore we have to prepare for a
heated run during the last six weeks.
Hopefully the security issue and
the policing in Rome will be at ease, and the club have given guidelines for all
fans travelling to Rome to follow. the safety guidelines posted on man utd .com, therefore I won't type it out again, but just a message to fans travelling to
Rome: Keep safe; enjoy the game; cheer the team and just stay in groups and away
from Roma's gangster like fans.
We really do know Roma well as we have
played them 4 times in one year and beat them twice at Old Trafford and that 7-1
trashing will have have shock wave around Europe going that we are really the
real deal and genuine Champions League winning team. Roma Tott has said that,
the 7-1 game really rocked him. but will will be under no illusion this is a new
cup tie and we have to go out there and do it again.(NB I know how to spell Carrick's name I just spell it with a 'dd' for good luck)