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Sunday 9 February 2014

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE: Manchester United 2-2 Fulham

The game started with a minute silence tribute to Busby Babes. Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Alex Ferguson we among 76000 fans in the audience supporting their team. Before the match, Fulham were in the bottom of the table and Manchester United were 7th. I was kind of confident that United was going to win this one, but things didn’t turn out good. All I can say is poor defending from United’s side. They focused more on attacking rather than defending and because of that, Fulham didn’t even take 20 minutes to score. Actually, few times during the match, David De Gea was completely left alone with no defenders in front of him. Fulham’s defending was really good though. Van Persie was blocked by 2,3 opponents all the time. 

We have seen so many times United coming from behind in Sir Alex Ferguson’s era. Today was similar but just that they couldn’t hold for final 1 minute. Like previous games, players were still lacking consistency. I don’t know whether it’s due to opponent’s good defending or something else, United were crossing just too much and even with more than 70% possession, they were struggling to score. Just in first half, a commentator counted 46 crosses from United whereas Fulham just had 1.

I have to admit, it was another brilliant play by Mata. He was seen active all the time but Van Persie was rising a lot. He probably had bit too much energy than needed. Wayne Rooney worked really hard. I always admire his versatility but in today’s game, there was not enough contact between ball and his foot. Then Adnan Januzaj came in 60th minute, which took Rooney down to central midfield. Since Mata arrived, Valencia and Kagawa have settled down to waiting list for first group but Valencia did get chance in later part of second half.

With brilliant assist from Juan Mata, Van Persie scored at 78th minute and within 90 seconds, Michel Carrick filled second goal in United's pocket. Then, we could see lots of smiley faces, including mine. I thought the game finished.


But, at 90th minute, 5 minutes was added. Although I complained about 5 minutes being too long, I was kind of confident that United had already won but guess what? Fulham scored equaliser goal at 94th minute. So, that was it! I am slowly losing hope of seeing Manchester United in top 4 this season L.

PS. Everyone should stop blaming Moyes!

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