Manchester United Crush Chelsea’s European Dream
Javier Hernandez and Park Ji-sung sealed Manchester Uniteds place in the Champions League semi-finals with a convincing win over English rivals Chelsea.
Having secured a 1-0 away win in the first leg, Manchester Utd were always going to be favourites at home. So it proved as they took the lead just before half-time, Hernandez blasting the football into the roof of the net from a few yards out after a great cross from the ever youthful Ryan Giggs.
Hernandez seems to have sealed his starting place in the Utd. side thanks to his ability to be in the right place at the right time and his growing relationship with Rooney.
For now, the imperious Berbatov has to be content with a seat on the bench even though he is vying for the Premier Leagues top scorer award.
The Chelsea manager, Ancelotti, decided that a change was needed at half-time and brought on Didier Drogba for the ineffectual Fernando Torres.
Drogba instantly upped the standard of Chelsea’s performance with several efforts that forced drastic action from the impressive Van der Sar. How Utd will miss him when he retires at the end of the season.
It looked like the night would be over for Chelsea when Ramires brought down Nani from behind as he was on a run, inevitably the referee had to show a yellow card, his second, and Ramires had to go leaving Chelsea with 10 men.
But Drogba wasn’t giving up and he gave Chelsea a lifeline on 77 minutes as he controlled the ball on his chest and struck it with force under Van der Sar’s body to go 1-1.
It was not to be however, less than a minute later the ball was in the back of Chelsea’s net. Again Giggs was the provider as he found Park with space on the edge of the box, he hit a low shot comfortably beating Petr Cech and sent Old Trafford into wild celebrations as they once again march to the semi-finals.
Photo: Gordonflood.com
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