Chelsea FC Vs. Manchester United, 2011 UEFA Champions League: Red Devils Snatch Controversial Away Win

So much for Sir Alex Ferguson’s UEFA Champions League script of going away in the first leg and getting a scoreless draw before going through with a win at home in the second leg. Manchester United went to Stamford Bridge for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie and came away with a 1-0 victory thanks to a Wayne Rooney goal as well as some fortunate refereeing at the end. The Red Devils will now head back to Old Trafford for next week’s second leg knowing that any sort of draw will see them through to the semifinals.

Chelsea were actually the better side in the early going, although no one would call them dominant. Any edge that the Blues had though they lost in the 24th minute when Rooney scored in the Champions League quarterfinals for the fifth consecutive year. A cleared corner kick didn’t make it quite far enough and Michael Carrick was able to spot Ryan Giggs out on the left. Giggs had acres of space because Jose Bosingwa was nowhere to be found and took the ball to the end line before crossing for Rooney. From there, it was a classy sidefooted finish just inside the post for Rooney and United were ahead 1-0.

Manchester United are very lucky to still have a lead, as Chelsea have been robbed of two penalty kicks in stoppage time. The first foul, when Patrice Evra took down Ramires in the box, was as stone cold a penalty as you’ll ever see. There was strong contact in the box, Evra’s challenge obviously made it impossible for Ramires to stay on his feed, and Ramires did not embellish the contact in the slightest. Honestly, it’s probably because he felt there was no need to. It was a penalty, plain and simple. And it wasn’t given.

The second call was not as obvious, but a penalty nonetheless. Rio Ferdinand made contact with Fernando Torres and caused him to lose his balance in the third minute of stoppage time, though Torres embellished the contact considerably. Honestly, the right decision in that situation is probably to give a penalty to Chelsea and a yellow card to Torres for simulation, but when have you ever seen that?

I can’t even count the number of scoring chances that Chelsea just had in a 90 second period between the 44th minute and the first half of first half stoppage time. Honestly, I completely lost track. But, I’m going to try to walk my way through them. I think that Fernando Torres had the first golden chance, as Didier Drogba put a ball on a silver platter for him, but he missed an absolute sitter off the post. The ball then fell to Frank Lampard, who had his shot barely blocked off the line by Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. Less than a minute later, Lampard had another golden opportunity, which was once again blocked. I think that was it. Were there a couple more in there? Holy crap.

Chelsea have almost certainly been the better team throughout the first half of this game, save for their poor defending and United’s brilliance on the one goal. There’s no reason that Chelsea shouldn’t be leading or at least level in this game, but alas, United have both a lead and an away goal, and therefore, a massive advantage.

If you didn’t know, Chelsea FC paid a whopping £50m to Liverpool FC for striker Fernando Torres, despite the Spanish international’s injury problems in the year before the sale. Since coming to Stamford Bridge, Torres has disappointed. This UEFA Champions League match against Manchester United is no exception, as Torres is playing poorly. He looks like a shell of the player that had Liverpool near the top of the table in the English Premier League and into the knockout stages of Champions League. It’s early in his Chelsea career, but a lot of people think that Liverpool pulled off a great piece of business when they sold Torres. Count among those ranks the folks who run the wildly popular Liverpool fan site Empire of the Kop.

Chelsea aren’t a dumb team: They know that they’re in a big hole, and they also know that panicking won’t do them any good. As a result, they’re certainly playing with urgency, but it’s controlled urgency that has them keeping possession and working the ball into the Manchester United box, as opposed to pumping balls in aimlessly. Didier Drogba is the kind of player who allows them to play that strategy if it comes down to it, but for now, patience is a virtue.

However, United are obviously a very intelligent team as well, and they’re fairly content to let Chelsea knock the ball around when they’re 50 yards from goal. At this point, bunkering it would hardly be a bad idea for the Red Devils. A 1-1 draw in this game would make them firm favorites to advance after the return leg, while even a 2-1 loss would have them feeling like they had an excellent chance to go through.

Chelsea have probably been the slightly better team thus far in their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal matchup against Manchester United, but Manchester United have looked okay going forward. In the 24th minute, Chelsea’s defense had a lapse in judgment and opened up a window for them, and they have capitalized. Wayne Rooney is the man who scored the goal, and the Red Devils are now 1-0 up. Even if Chelsea come back and take a lead, United now have the all-important away goal.

If anyone on Chelsea is to blame for the goal, it’s right back Jose Bosingwa. Following a set piece opportunity, the ball was cleared out to the halfway line before Rafael restarted the attack. Michael Carrick started the real meat and potatoes of the move, switching the ball wide to Ryan Giggs, who drifted to the left flank despite starting in a central midfield role. Bosingwa was nowhere to be found as Giggs picked up the ball, dribbled to the byline, picked his head up, and squared a ball across the face of goal. The pass was perfectly placed for Wayne Rooney, who made a delayed run into the box onto the ball. He’s not a man who misses open opportunities from 12 yards, and this one was no exception, as he calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net at the far post.

Carlo Ancelotti has opted to drop French pair Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka to make room for Yuri Zhirkov and Fernando Torres on the attack. Chelsea are expected to come out in their now-standard 4-4-2 shape with a formidable (on paper, at least) strike pairing of Didier Drogba and £50M Torres, who is yet to score a goal in Chelsea colours since moving from Liverpool in the January transfer window. Yossi Benayoun also makes his first team return, earning a place on the substitute’s bench after six months out with an Achilles problem.

Aside from switching the disappointing Malouda for the more defensively reliable Zhirkov, Ancelotti’s midfield and defence lines up more or less as expected. With David Luiz cup-tied and Alex out of action with a knee problem, Chelsea’s only available centre backs are John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic, which leave Jose Bosingwa playing right back while Ashley Cole mans the left. The midfield features Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, and Ramires - they’ll be hoping they can expose the relatively weak United centre through power and pace.

There’s no place for Nani, Paul Scholes, or hitman Dimitar Berbatov as Manchester United travel to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie. Instead, Sir Alex Ferguson has opted to reinforce his centre by committing Park Ji-Sung to the fray alongside Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick - the Korean should provide some width on the attack while moving inside to help Giggs and Carrick defensively.

Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez retains his spot in the starting XI, paired alongside England striker Wayne Rooney, with top scorer Dimitar Berbatov having to setting for a spot on the bench. Defensively, United are bolstered by the return of former England captain Rio Ferdinand, and Ferguson will get to deploy his first-choice centre back pairing for the first time since late January.

Although England midfielder Frank Lampard was in the Chelsea side that lost on penalties to Manchester United in the 2008 Champions League final, his thoughts are more on winning the quarter-final clash against that same opposition rather than attempting to exact revenge. Lampard, who scored Chelsea’s equalising goal in Moscow before captain John Terry missed what would have been the winning penalty, said that he’d been with the team long enough to recognise that ups and downs are a natural part of playing the game:

When asked to comment about whether revenge was on his mind, Terry began frothing at the mouth and speaking the Forbidden Words that will summon the Demons From Dark Places to destroy mankind.

Volatile England striker Wayne Rooney was a conspicuous absence for Manchester United as the squad trained on Tuesday, but Sir Alex Ferguson is ‘sure’ that the striker will be fit for the Champions League quarter-final match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. In addition to the badly bruised shin that kept him out of practice, Rooney is also having to navigate an FA disciplinary hearing after being charged with using offensive language by English football’s governing body - he has been suspended for two matches after swearing at a camera during his side’s win over West Ham United and is appealing the length of the sentence.

However, unless he’s actually unfit, that’s probably more bad news than good for the home side, who will be desperately hoping that Rooney is nowhere near his vicious best against them. And since the 24 year-old appears to thrive on some combination of anger and bloody-minded defiance, events of the past week are probably going to put him in exactly the right frame of mind for the game, at least as far as United are concerned.

That’s why Graham MacAree at SB Nation’s Chelsea FC blog, We Ain’t Got No History urges that Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t fall into the trap of going back to his narrow 4-4-2 diamond formation. When Chelsea play in their 4-3-3 setup, the wide forwards in that setup force opposing fullbacks to choose their forward runs wisely. In Graham’s opinion, using those wide players to keep Manchester United’s fullbacks at bay is key.

It’s debatable that the narrow diamond allows Chelsea to pick their best team (though I would disagree), but it’s certainly not debatable that the narrow diamond setup, unless done in an unorthodox way, could allow United’s fullbacks to have a seriously large influence on the game. For that reason, a 4-3-3 formation with some width - which is what Graham advocates in his piece - is Chelsea’s best bet on Wednesday.

He probably isn’t wrong. The last time these two sides met in Europe was a tense encounter that ended at 1-1 after ninety minutes and extra time, ultimately going to penalties where United won after a famous slip by Chelsea captain John Terry, and although there’ve been some famous shootouts between English sides in the Champions League over the years, it’s not very often that such evenly matched teams produce memorable games. If you’re expecting a classic, you may want to look elsewhere.

Once a staple of the UEFA Champions League semifinals, the competition has been secretly re-organized and rigged to make sure that the all-English tie or ties happens in the quarterfinals. Okay, not really, but based on recent history it does seem a little early for a meeting between Chelsea FC and Manchester United. Both teams have failed to look like powerhouses over the last two seasons, both domestically and on the continent, but there’s no arguing that they’re two of the best teams in the world and that they should put together a great tie over two legs.

Chelsea are a relatively injury free team, while Manchester United are not a healthy team. A variety of players are questionable for the game and not yet confirmed as able to start or not able to start, so the United injury report has more questions than answers. Alex Ferguson is a master of adjusting his tactics to suit the players that he has available to him when he has injury problems, but the likely absence of Darren Fletcher limits Ferguson’s tactical options considerably.