Man Utd vs Villarreal Champions League LiveBlog

By: Daryl | September 17th, 2008

Man Utd vs Villarreal
Group E
Old Trafford
Sep 17th 2008
Kick off: 8:45 pm CET

Man Utd 0-0 Villarreal

FULL-TIME It’s finished 0-0. Not too exciting if we’re honest. Thanks to everyone who read and commented.

We’re into added time here. Diego Lopez gets a yellow for taking his time with a goal kick.

- Porto now 3-1 up against Fener. That game is done.

- Arsenal have equalized against Dynamo Kyiv, Gallas in the 88th minute makes it 1-1.

88′ Inagaza gets a yellow for kicking the ball away. Arguably the dumbest way to get a yellow card.

87′ Three minutes to go, plus added time. Time to start thinking what 0-0 means for these two teams. Probably not much at this stage. Man Utd will be frustrated but not heartbroken, Villarreal will probably see it as a point gained. But it’s not over yet.

- Lyon have come from 2-0 down to 2-2 against Fiorentina. Benzema just got the equalizer.

82′ Johnny Evans hits the post with a diving header! That’s one post each, so in a sense Evans just equalized for Man Utd.

81′ Man Utd sub: Tevez off, Giggs on.

80′ Nani gets a cross to the far post, but Ronaldo’s header is wide.

Alex Del Piero breaks the Juve vs Zenit deadlock. 1-0 Juve.

77′ Villarreal sub: Franco off (so close with that effort) and Llorente on.

- This game feels a bit more end to end and lively now we have Cazorla and Ronaldo on.

- Godin is down after a collision with Tevez left him flat on his back next to the advertising boards.

Lyon got one back 2-1. Piquionne.

72′ CLEARED OFF THE LINE! Ronaldo played Rooney through, Rooney squared to Tevez and Tevez beat the keeper only for Rodriguez to clear off the line. Best chance yet though.

70′ Evra with a pacy cross that Lopez dives to bat away.

69′ Anderson with a pretty tame shot. At least he’s willing to give it a go though.

67′ Villarreal sub: Ibagaza on for Pires.

66′ Ronaldo gets his first chance as Man Utd break. He hit a volley into the ground and it sort of ended up on target, but clearly not what was intended. Lopez saves fairly easily.

- Dynamo Kyiv are beating Arsenal 1-0 with an Ismael Bangoura penalty.

63′ Johnny Evans gets his head to a corner, but he directs it just wide. He’s been pretty solid today.

62′ Man Utd substitution: Hargreaves off, Anderson on. Park off, Ronaldo on. And there’s at least one lady in the crowd who’s very very happy about that.

61′ SO CLOSE! Franco just hit the inside of the post with one those of the cool flick-backheel shots. That would have shook this game up a bit.

60′ Ronaldo taking off the tracksuit. C-Ron imminnent.

Ruud van Nistelrooy just scored to put Real Madrid 2-0 up over BATE. Man Utd could do with an RvN goal right now.

- ~~Porto now 3-1 up against Fener.~~ (third goal was disallowed). Still no goals here.

54′ C-Ron warming up. Looks like he’ll be coming on soonish. Crowd seemed to give him a little cheer. They’ve seen a glimpse of a Ronaldo-less future recently, and it doesn’t look good.

53′ Ball bounces around all over the edge of the Villarreal box but Man Utd players look scared to shoot.

51′ G-Nev wins the ball from Pires with a sort of stamp tackle, but ref calls a free kick. G-Nev does the funniest appeal I’ve seen in a long time: arms in the air and his face all scrunched up. Impressive, but doesn’t change the refs mind.

49′ Hargreaves pass intercepted by the ref. That doesn’t seem fair.

47′ Tevez receives a Nani through ball, but he’s about two or three yards offside.

45′ We’re back underway. No changes for Man Utd.

Teams coming back out. Villarreal sub: Cani off, Cazorla on.

HALF-TIME Think there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing C-Ron sooner rather than later.

45+ Rooney tries to catch Lopez out with a lob from the halfway line, but Lopez got back and Rooney’s shot was wide.

One minute of added time.

45′ Cani rivals Tevez for worst shot of the day. It was high, high and high.

- This hasn’t been the most exciting game. Not sure what Fergie’s going to do, but I’m going to make myself a sandwich at half-time to cheer myself up.

- Fiorentina now beating Lyon 2-0, Gilardino now has a brace.

40′ Tevez with possible the worst shot of his career. He was outside the box and to the right, but his shot just trickled along the penalty area.

38′ Park with a shout for a penalty, he knocked it past Capdevila and then tripped over the left backs leg. Could easily have been given, Park and Hargreaves furious that it wasn’t.

- More Utd possession and Villarreal defending. Can’t decide if Villarreal have a gameplan that’s working or not, but they could get to HT with 0-0 here.

34′ Franco with a late late sliding tackle on Evra. He gets a card to match his shirt.

32′ Rooney got a great cross in for Fletcher after everyone thought the ball was out of play, but Fletcher’s header was blocked. Villarreal need to change something and get a grip on this game.

- Bad news for Celtic fans: Barry Robson just missed a penalty against AaB. Still 0-0 there.

- Fener have pulled one back against Porto through Dani Guiza. 2-1 in Portugal now.

30′ Tevez shoots from outside the box and makes Lopez dive to save.

29′ Pires shoots from a very tight angle and gets a save out of VDS.

27′ Hargreaves plays a one two and then fires one way over the bar.

- Porto have scored two quick goals and lead Fenerbahce 2-0.

25′ Wow. Pires just cleared the ball by playing it along the floor through a crowded Villarreal penalty area. Miskicked it obviously, and could have been very embarrassing. A Man Utd goal feels weirdly inevitable.

23′ Fletcher plays a one two with Nani and slips Park through, but Edmilson just gets a touch to Park’s shot to deflect it wide.

21′ Villarreal with a bit of possession and more half-hearted boos for Pires. The Yellow Submarine look short of ideas going forward though.

19′ Capdevila just nutmegged Gary Neville with a pass. Welcome back to the Champions League G-Nev.

18′ Rodriguez literally wrestles with Tevez. A little like John Terry did to Jo, except that Rodriguez didn’t manage to take his target down.

16′ Replay show Park just got his ankle trampled in the box. No penalty though. This game so far: Man Utd attack, Villarreal defend deep. No shame in Villarreal doing that, but still don’t understand why Senna wouldn’t be a useful player to do that with.

- News from Bucharest: Bayern are leading Steaua 1-0 through Van Buyten.

14′ Long range stinger from Nani. Keeper blocked it but couldn’t hold it. I would have jumped out the way, but I guess that’s why I’m not a Champions League goalkeeper.

- News from France: Lyon are losing 1-0 to Fiorentina. Rob’s LiveBlog here.

9′ First shot of C-Ron sitting on the bench (who had nine minutes?) He’s wearing what appears to be the largest possible diamond earring a human male ear can hold.

8′ Nani does his semi-convincing C-Ron impression with a shimmy and wins a corner. Corner lands at Ferdinand’s feet unmarked in the six yard box, but he basically fell over the ball. That’s why you play at the back Rio.

6′ Park tries to find Rooney but plays it far too long.

2′ Looks like Pires hurt his ankle. Very short boo from the Man Utd crowd, but nothing that’s going to make the Frenchman lose any sleep.

0′ And we’re off.

Just heard from the ESPN2 guys that Berbatov is injured, so that’s why he’s not playing. Makes more sense than Fergie thinking John O’Shea would be more productive up front.

- 5 mins til kickoff. Players in the tunnel. Man Utd wearing AIG sponsored shirts. Which as I understand it means they’re now sponsored by the US government. Let’s not talk about financial stuff though, because it scares me.

As Taylor just pointed out in the comments, Berbatov isn’t on the bench. What is Fergie up to? To prove I’m not making this up, I’m getting my info from no less a source than UEFA

15 or so mins til kickoff - ESPN2 (I have no choice) are finally done with their profile of an NFL ref/umpire. Let the proper football commence.

35 mins til kickoff - We have lineups and they look like this:

Man Utd 4-4-2: VDS; Neville, Evra, Evans, Ferdinand; Nani, Hargreaves, Fletcher, Park; Rooney, Tevez
Subs: Foster, Brown, C-Ron, Anderson, Giggs, Vidic, O’Shea

Villarreal 4-4-1-1: Lopez, Angel, Capdevila, Rodriguez, Godin; Cani, Pires, Edmilson, Eguren; Fernandez; Franco
Subs: Viera, Cazorla, Ibageza, Llorente, Venta, Senna, Fuentes

Some very odd selections from both sides there. Evans over Brown and Vidic in the Utd back four? The first team return of G-Nev in such a big game? Senna and Cazorla starting on the bench for Villarreal?

Preamble:

So Man Utd’s defence of the trophy begins. It’s been a so-so start to the Premier League season, but we’ll likely see Cristiano Ronaldo make his big “I never wanted to go to Real Madrid anyway” Man Utd comeback tonight. Paul Scholes is suspended but Owen Hargreaves could play. Up front we’ll very likely see the Champions League debut of Dimitar Berbatov.

Villarreal have won one drawn one so far in their first two La Liga games, and have plenty of men Man Utd should be scared of. Marcos Senna is capable of dominating any midfield, and that goes double for a Utd midfield missing Scholes and Carrick. Robert Pires will enjoy facing his old enemies. Santi Carzola is always dangerous on the wing (or through the middle) and knows how to say no to a Real Madrid transfer:

“There are many other things in football besides Real Madrid. It’s clear that it is possible to say “no” to them, There is no doubt that they are a great team, but I also feel very satisfied and valued at my club.”

That’s how you do it C-Ron.

Bad news for Villarreal is that Giuseppe Rossi didn’t recover from injury in time to face his old club and Nihat Kahveci is still injured from Euro 2008. Bad news for US fans is that Jozy Altidore is not on the Champions League roster to benefit.

LiveBlog starts above.