United beat Lyon 2-1 in a Champions League Group D match at Old Trafford early Wednesday morning. (Reports: BBC, Soccernet, the Guardian, minute-by-minute.)
Lyon were a tough side — United had barely earned a draw with them earlier — and despite being injury-hit, the French side were still a force to be reckoned with. But it was United who struck first in this match and the goal came from a surprising source. Gary Neville played a one-two with Ronaldo then passed to Alan Smith whose low cross deflected fortuitously back to Neville. The defender, who’s not renowned for his scoring prowess, slammed the ball into the back of the net to give United the lead.
The scoreline remained the same until the 40th minute when Diarra fired a speculative shot from way out. Carroll should’ve comfortably saved it but the ball slipped out of his hands and into the net. You could sense every United fans was wondering, “Taibi or not Taibi, that is the question,” after that horrible mistake.
It once again left to that man van Nistelrooy to rescue the occasion. The Dutch master got the winner 7 minutes after the break with a header after sterling work in the box by Ferdinand.
Rooney came close to adding his name to the scoresheet several times but it remained 2-1 until the end.
It was Ferguson’s 1000th game in charge of United and his 564th victory. There are loads of articles to commemorate the occasion:
- The man, his words and his defining moments
- ManUtd.com has an interview (part 1, part 2) while the Guardian’s NewsBlog has additional links to sift through.
- Pictures
- His best-ever XI
- The tributes
