Follow! Follow! Follow! To Moscow - And…..Chelsea!
April 30, 2008
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Follow! Follow! Follow! Cuz United Are Going To Moscow!
It’s not going to be cheap, it’s not going to be easy and the ballot is over, so, if you didn’t get tickets - you won’t be going to Moscow unless you want to soak up the atmosphere.
The lucky holders of those final tickets can look forward to £400 flights, £250 hotel rooms and £50 taxi rides.
But, being ticket holders for what will probably be one of the biggest games in Champions League history will more than make up for any monetary losses.
It was a display not of breathtaking football - this was not United versus Roma 2007 - but of incredible guts and never-say-die attitude.
Just prior to kick off one side of the stand held up reflective sheets which - en masse - spelled out the word ‘Believe’.
The cynic in us passed it off as a piece of cheesy hubris for the television age.
But we were wrong to be cynical - because those United lads last night showed us what self-belief and the sheer dogged will to win can bring.
Everyone one of them not only wanted to win, they believed they could win and it was that belief as much as their incredible work rate which saw them through to the Promised Land of another Champions League Final.
The usual cliches applied to this semi-final as many others before. It would be tight and very fine details - moments of brilliance, or moments of carelessness - that would decide matters.
As it happened it was one single moment of carelessness that gave United a chance, a chance that was despatched brilliantly by one of the club’s greatest servants of the modern era.
When Zambrotta foolishly skewed his clearance blinldy into the path of the elusive Scholes and the ginger maestro did what he’s done for the past decade, the tension abated momentarily.
Yet it did not last long.
Barcelona once again dominated possession - the other-wordly brilliance of Lionel Messi at the heart of their play. Messi was incredible, untouchable, dazzling - but good as he was he was up against the implacable might of Brown, Ferdinand, Hargreaves and Evra.
The Argentinean genius could beat these foes in ones and two - but not in threes and fours. Thus it was that for all their fancy passing Barcelona created only a handful of chances once again.
Ronaldo, up front, was - he would admit - outshone by the performance of Messi. Yet his performance displayed a greaty maturity and team focus that would have been unthinkable 12 months or 2 years ago.
Let’s not forget it was his threatening run and the panic it caused in the Barca defence which led to United’s precious goal.
Ronaldo was aided and abetted by Carlos Tevez who was indefatigable in his harrying of the Barcelona back four - chasing them and the ball like a tireless young puppy. If he isn’t in the starting eleven come May 21st then he and many United fans would be surprised.
Many argued that United could and should have adopted a more offensive attitude for this match - the vulnerability of the Barcelona back four suggested a more attacking formation would have yielded further goals.
But United had settled on their stance and weren’t going to be distracted from their mission.
Not even the introduction of their old foes, Thierry Henry and Eidur Gudjohnsen, could unsettle them.
They fought until the very end and reaped the rich rewards of that incredible collective belief.
Whether it’s Chelsea or Liverpool they line up against on May 21 - United must once again play with the same motto.
If they believe the glittering prize will once again fall to them and Sir Alex.
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