LONG gone are the days when Manchester United could afford to treat the League Cup with disdain. On the pitch and in the stands they celebrated their passage to the final against Wigan Athletic on February 26 with a zeal that they once reserved for Europe.
In these impoverished times, Sir Alex Ferguson will take any trophy he can get his hands on and so will his players, to judge from their approach throughout a fiercely contested semi- final tie that almost boiled over when Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Savage clashed in the Old Trafford tunnel at half-time.
A classic cover-up operation meant that reports of the incident were sketchy, with the gestures of an excitable ball-boy about the only indication that any punches had been thrown, but the decisive blow on the pitch came from Louis Saha, who scored his fifth goal in the competition this season early in the second half.
Earlier, Ruud van Nistelrooy had restored United’s aggregate lead and had a penalty saved by the excellent Brad Friedel. Blackburn worked hard, but, missing the injured Craig Bellamy, they lacked quality in attack and had only a goal from Steven Reid to show for their efforts.
Advertisement
Over the two legs, United did enough to merit their place at the Millennium Stadium and would have won comfortably but for the heroics of Friedel in the Blackburn goal.
As against Liverpool on Sunday, they ultimately made light of a shortage of quantity as well as quality in midfield, Ryan Giggs having limped off after 13 minutes with a hamstring injury. Ferguson knows that the present position, with Paul Scholes, John O’Shea and Quinton Fortune out, is not tenable and he hinted at signing a midfield player on loan, with the latest targets rumoured to be Johan Vogel, of AC Milan, as well as Thomas Gravesen, of Real Madrid.
Giggs had started in an unfamiliar midfield holding role, but he did not leave without having a hand in the opening goal. Intercepting a stray pass from Michael Gray, Giggs sent the ball to Wayne Rooney and Gray tried too hard to atone for his initial error, knocking Rooney’s pass into the path of Van Nistelrooy, who swept the ball past Friedel with customary relish.
However, Savage and Tugay Kerimoglu began to exploit United’s weaknesses in midfield. A succession of menacing crosses had caused panic in the home defence when Gray whipped the ball in from the left in the 32nd minute, forcing Kieran Richardson into a wild clearance that took a ricochet off Wes Brown into the path of Reid, whose first-time shot squirmed under the body of Edwin van der Sar.
Blackburn were furious when Graham Poll, the referee, harshly awarded United a penalty for handball by Zurab Khizanishvili. Van Nistelrooy’s kick was superbly saved by Friedel, diving low to his right, and Blackburn’s sense of injustice was reinforced 11 minutes into the second period when the ball struck Ferdinand’s hand in almost identical circumstances without punishment.
Advertisement
United started the second half with greater focus. Darren Fletcher dispossessed Tugay, allowing Rooney to carry the ball wide and cross to the edge of the penalty area, where Saha, leaning back, sliced a perfect volley beyond Friedel.
Van Nistelrooy had two opportunities to make the game safe but again he found Friedel in inspired form. The forward was substituted in the closing stages as Ferguson sent on Nemanja Vidic to make his debut in a five-man defence. It is a tactic that the United manager has rarely employed to protect leads in Europe, let alone the Carling Cup, but desperate times call for desperate measures, even if it means embracing a trophy that was once kept at more than arm ‘s length.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-3): E van der Sar — G Neville, R Ferdinand, W Brown, P Evra (sub: M Silvestre, 80min) — D Fletcher, R Giggs (sub: A Smith, 13), K Richardson — W Rooney, R van Nistelrooy (sub: N Vidic, 86), L Saha. Substitutes not used: T Howard, G Rossi. Booked: Smith, Richardson.
BLACKBURN ROVERS (4-4-2): B Friedel — L Neill, Z Khizanishvili, R Nelsen, M Gray — S Reid, R Savage, Tugay Kerimoglu (sub: S Peter, 86), M G Pedersen — S Kuqi (sub: B Emerton, 76), D Bentley. Substitutes not used: A Todd, A Mokoena, P Enckelman. Booked: Neill.
Referee: G Poll. (United win 3-2 on agg)
Advertisement
FINAL: MANCHESTER UNITED v WIGAN ATHLETIC
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 26