red irish:

I noticed Akinfeev was very friendly towards our players, maybe he was trying to smooth the way for a potential move !

haha good one Irish, but these things(transfer deals) actually happen off pitch?..I think he purposely kicked the ball out of play and also too hard that it goes to VDS's area a few times...am I the only one to notice that?....maybe my imagination, haha but he is so United material.Let's get him.

It is so clear in the video clip showing Fletcher being tripped up and not only that, one of the Russian players quickly kicked the ball out of play as the ref approached....what we should do is to send a video clip of it to Michel Platini and ask him what he thinks of it....SAF is right to say it is the worst decision ever made...I have no sympathies at all for referees...they spoil the game....maybe we should have an independent sports body to investigate such weird decisions...why do these things happen?...are there any links with booking agencies..?

Yes its true sometimes decisions go our way but this is really something blatantly obvious...and the ref had the cheek to look so smug about it..did you also see Owen's reaction...it was so unbelievable to him, he threw his hands up in utter disbelief and sense of helplessness.

Should we all write in to UEFA and protest the decision?Then they will think twice about trying it again.What's the address of UEFA? 

I think your are barking up the wrong tree mate! Fletcher and Scholes are not holding midfeild players at all. If Fletcher was a holding midfeild player why did he get fouled in the box when we should have had a penalty? I saw Paul Scholes make plenty of runs into the penalty area in both halfs last night and I think he is actually our top scorer in the Champions League this season! Hardly playing defensivley! I take your point about the Liverpool game with Carrick and Scholes partnership, we needed more pace and aggressionj in our midfeild for that match, but last night Ferguson did not play defensive midfeilders and the midfeild was not the reason we DREW the match (we did not lose as you pointed out). We lost simple because we did not take our chances and we created plenty and we defended poorly as a team, also give credit to CSKA, they played with great freedom and performed alot better  then they did in Moscow. United have plenty of issue's that they need to sort out over the season in all area's of the feild, some need to be corrected during transfer windows others need time and paitence. The fact is we are through to the next stage, job done. I think the team needs to start playing well at home! When you play well in front of your own fans they get belief and confidence in the team, with the fans backing and approval, the players gain confidence and play better, but keeping playing badly at home and fans can turn on the team and show their disapproval, this can increase the pressure on the team and manager. We have not played too well at home, apart from the 2nd half against City, this season, our best performances have come away, Wigan 5-0, Spurs 3-1, Stoke 2-0 etc.    

The atmosphere before the game between both sets of fans was fantastic in The Trafford. There was good hearted banter between Moscow and United fans. Singing and talking without any major incidents was really good to see. It's what you wish for more between fans. But of course more often than not, their are a few idiots who spoil the party. Luckily this was not one of those occassions. 

In many ways, being on the losing side makes the atmosphere in the crowd better; there is a greater incentive to make a noise and to cheer your team back into the game. That's exactly what happened on Tuesday night. We should have never been in that position of course; CSKA are a good team and they are, after all, the Russian champions. Our defence though just didn't do its job on Tuesday. CSKA had three chances and they converted them all.

Nani really struggled and he's lost his way this season. He's still a great player though. I thought that it was another consement display by Fletcher. He just worked again, tirelessley, to get us back into the game. Valencia struggled at times but got better as the game went on. Rooney and Evra made the difference though. With Evra down the left, he was making things happen, and it was much the same for Rooney. Big player have the ability to change games. It's a cliche, but most of the time, they tend to be true. I think we maybe could have gone onto win the game but in the end after being 3-1 down, a point is a good result. We've showed character and fight once again. These qualities have helped us before and they will help us again.

it was a poor decision! but more than that I feel bad for fletcher... remember last year semi-final where he was so unlucky! If this card has any involvement in another crucial suspension then it will be another tragedy!! There has to be a way to appeal such decisions...

[Omar, please do not avoid the swear filter.  it is there for a reason.  Post amended accordingly.  Gavinio]

Jack 51:

 what are your thoughts on the decision about the penalty?

i was all the way at the other end of the stadium (the east stand) and even i could se it was a stone wall penalty!! i don't know what the ref was playing at but he was rubbish all game he kept giving them free kicks for no reason and generally seemed to want the ruskies to win.

it was a great finnish to the game though and the lonely russian sat in front of me got some abuse when valencia's shot found a way in

[Mind your language.  Please do not avoid the swear filter.  It is there for a reason. Post amended by Gavinio]

 the referee was in kookoo land, no doubt about it.

That Ref mustve been smoking crack.

 To be honest...everyones view is that it was a stonewall penalty and the ref was cr@p....shoulda been a penalty

You need to re-word that sentence.

It was a penalty though.

 what are your thoughts on the decision about the penalty?

We will see what we can do, but even if you make a thread an official one people still feel the need to open a new thread, so we will still have to merge threads regardless.

You have to understand that we do this in our spare time, so there is no guarantee we are going to be on during or straight after a match because we may be at the game ourself or out somewhere else watching it.  We are United fans first and foremost so watching United takes priority over moderating the forums! 

However, what I will try and do is that ensure that whoever posts the first reaction thread has the thread title changed to include the word official in it.  (It has to be the first thread opened because when you merge it it slots the post in according to the time it was posted).  Is that okay?  Not a perfect solution but probably the best we can manage at the moment.

coralred,

Thanks a million.

I really feel happy that Gavinio and two more of the active fans have been given the responsibility of moderating the forum. The improvements are already visible, look at this thread itself, it is a mix of three or four threads, all related to last evening's match.  I have already replied to redzepplin, my reward is the pleasure I get in watching our games and the responses to my posts from those intelligent and knowledgeable readers like you. There is absolutely nothing beyond that, honestly.

I have one suggestion to the mods though, hope somebody sees this. We have already tried having an "official" opening thread by the ManUtd journo (I think for the Liverpool match) as a preview or the reactions to a match and all responses will get posted in that.Keep that with a sticky, so it remains on top and there is no need to open a new thread.  This will be better than merging all these threads later. Or better still, the opening thread for a preview or match reaction could be written by a mod and posted with a request to post everything related to that match in that thread only.

I will copy and post this para in the other section for easy attention of the mods.

Cheers! 

jmoney:

There's no reason to compare the two. If anything you could say obertan looks better than Nani. I believe that obertan gives United more scoring options than Nani. I really hope that he gets more playing time.

Agree,

We can't compared them for what they did last night, there are so many factors that a lot of people are not considering here, you need to dig a little deeper and read between the lines, all I've been reading are just superficial comparisons. I am not a huge Nani fan but I think it's unfair to say that Obertan is far better and Nani for what they showed in one game.

First of all, when Obertan came on, cska players weren't counterattacking anymore as they did in the first half, so Obertan didn't have any defensive job to do, just put balls into the box, which he did not do much, he made a bunch a good passes but most of them were back to Evra (probably because he's also French and feels he can rely on him). Another thing, Evra and Rooney were already on the pitch, and they have made a difference already, Obertan had Evra's support consistenly, something Nani didn;t have from Fabio. Rooney was pushing strong in the center, making the left flank easier for Obertan.

In my opinion, I think they played in different situations and Nani didn't played as bad as other games (was average last night) and Obertan wasn;t great neither as many people think here. Lets give Obertan more time and games to see how he handles league games, but as of now, I would still put Nani ahead of Obertan.