It seems that Roma here is like another Premier League team,
we've seen them 5 times already in the past year and it has all ended well for United!
The first time these two teams met, Roma beat United 2-1 at their home stadium.
United responded with a classic 7-1 thrashing of the romans at Old Trafford.
Months later, United and Roma were drawn in the same group of the Champions League Group Stages and once again, United prevailed and beat Roma 1-0 at home.
The 2nd game of the group match ended in a 1-1 draw which saw Rooney captain the United side for the first time.
And today... United added another victory over the Italian Giants.
With talismanic striker, Francesco Totti, Roma looked weakened but, nevetheless United respected their opponents and played a 4 - 5 - 1 formation.
Park Ji Sung started in place of Ryan Giggs, while Tevez sat on the bench with the Boss preferring Rooney in the lone striker role.
The match started off with United possessing the ball more than their Italian opponents but neither side managed to break down the defence or the packed midfield.
Anderson, Scholes and Carrick were consistantly seen running back and forth, attacking and defending well while the Italians tried to break the duck in front of their home support.
Ronaldo who was pretty much frustrated at the physical tackles by his markers and the ref decided to play down his requests for numerous fouls. Nevertheless, he remained calm and silently looking for moments to cast his magic.
The moment came when Rooney won the ball in the opposition half and passed it right to Scholes who then crossed in what seemed to be a weak cross across the opponent's penalty box when out of no where, that boy Ronaldo burst into a run and headed the ball right into the Roman's net! It was stunning, I was practically left stunned as I never expected that goal to come.
Ronaldo's 36th goal of the season was the highlight of the first half, but however it was marred by the fact that United's reliable center back, Nemanja Vidic, injured his knee and had to be stretchered off allowing John O' Shea to replace him.
The second half started with United taking their foot off the pedal as they allowed Roma to attack continuously. There was an alarming 10minutes that saw Van Der Sar making a marvellous save to keep the United goal in tact. The solid defending by all the players were also a key reason Roma failed to score in their moment of magic.
With the alarm bells ringing, United were alert once more and this time they seeked for a second goal once again.
The second goal did come, compliments of the heroic run by Park Ji Sung to meet Brown's cross. The South Korean ran and managed to head the ball into the center of the penalty box before it went out. Rooney who was waiting was blessed with the fumble by the Roman defender and the keeper that allowed him to slot home the goal!
It was brilliant and United tried to seek a third goal at the restart. The boss, replaced Rooney with Tevez and Anderson with Hargreaves and the two combined together to set up another perfect chance to extend the lead. Sadly, it was blasted over the net by Ronaldo and the game ended 2-0 for United.
So with 2 away goals, United looked as favourites for the return leg at Old Trafford! Could we be seeing a United vs Barcelona in the Semi Finals? I hope we do!
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