EPL Week 11: Manchester United Barely Edge Over Hull City In 4-3 Win
November 4th 2008 03:06
For the second straight week, the defending champions were receiving one of the Premiership's weakest teams, recently-promoted Hull City. The latter were easily defeated by Chelsea the week before with a scoreline of 3-0. Conventional wisdom would say that Manchester United were going to duplicate that performance with a convincing win of their win. For awhile, it actually looked like it.
Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring in the second minute of play with a low shot that hit the post before crossing the line. Twenty minutes later though, Hull took advantage of a careless and unnecesserary foul by Vidic, to level the score at 1-1. Still, Manchester United were completely dominating the game as evidenced by two more goals before half-time respectively scored by Carrick and Ronaldo (his second of the day).
Ten minutes after the half, Vidic repaired his mistake by scoring United's fourth goal. The Red Devils were simply cruising to victory. But, just like the weeks before, they put their feet off the gas, content with simply going through the motions. When Hull got their second goal at the 68th minute, the home side didn't notice the warning signs. The reason was simple. They were getting numerous opportunity to score, so to them, all it took was a lucky bounce to keep Hull away. Meanwhile, the visitors' efforts only intensified, and they were rewarded with a penalty-kick at the 86th minute which resulted in their third goal.
With Hull desperately and admirably fighting back, United were lucky that they didn't have to wait too long for the final whistle. As it was, Hull were slowly getting control of the game with their intensity and discipline. In the end, United won but like the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL, they still haven't won a single game in convincing manner. Sir Alex surely won't appreciate that.
Manchester United's line-up: Edwin Van der Sar; Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra; Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Carrick (Ryan Giggs, 71st), Anderson (John O'Shea, 87th), Nani (Carlos Tevez, 62nd); Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov.
Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring in the second minute of play with a low shot that hit the post before crossing the line. Twenty minutes later though, Hull took advantage of a careless and unnecesserary foul by Vidic, to level the score at 1-1. Still, Manchester United were completely dominating the game as evidenced by two more goals before half-time respectively scored by Carrick and Ronaldo (his second of the day).
Ten minutes after the half, Vidic repaired his mistake by scoring United's fourth goal. The Red Devils were simply cruising to victory. But, just like the weeks before, they put their feet off the gas, content with simply going through the motions. When Hull got their second goal at the 68th minute, the home side didn't notice the warning signs. The reason was simple. They were getting numerous opportunity to score, so to them, all it took was a lucky bounce to keep Hull away. Meanwhile, the visitors' efforts only intensified, and they were rewarded with a penalty-kick at the 86th minute which resulted in their third goal.
With Hull desperately and admirably fighting back, United were lucky that they didn't have to wait too long for the final whistle. As it was, Hull were slowly getting control of the game with their intensity and discipline. In the end, United won but like the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL, they still haven't won a single game in convincing manner. Sir Alex surely won't appreciate that.
Manchester United's line-up: Edwin Van der Sar; Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra; Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Carrick (Ryan Giggs, 71st), Anderson (John O'Shea, 87th), Nani (Carlos Tevez, 62nd); Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov.
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