Manchester United Vs. Schalke 04, 2011 UEFA Champions League: United Win 6-1 On Aggregate

That second half saw Anderson, who’s now played 128 games for his club, double his goal total with a quick brace. The lunacy inherent in a midfielder with a goalscoring record of one in every sixty three matches getting two in four minutes echoed amusingly around Twitter, and I think from that point forward people were mostly watching to see whether Anderson could get an implausbile hattrack.

Gibson joined the scoring party himself shortly thereafter, smashing a loose ball home off Neuer and the post to make it 2-0 after nobody picked up his late run into the box. It’s been a good day for Gibson so far, with a goal and an assist more than making up for an early rib injury and a yellow card.

Hopefully that tweet is overplaying things and that this is just a little bit of a halftime ruckus. We’ll probably hear more after the match is over, but as the second half kicks off all seems well in the stands.

Not quite, apparently, Jose Jurado has pulled one back with a very similar goal to Gibson’s (although Edwin van der Sar didn’t help that one in). The ball came out to him 16 yards out and the midfielder’s stinging shot into the top corner left the veteran goalkeeper with no chance whatsoever. So, that’s 2-1 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate, but the fun wasn’t done yet.

Anyway, Schalke have been better, but still pretty dire - and United are playing what’s essentially a reserve team. They have had a couple of opportunities, but have been more than a little undone by poor finishing, but ultimately miserable passing has seen them give the ball up for their hosts far too often. Manchester United are going to Wembley, and they’ll probably do it by way of an absolute rout here at Old Trafford.

For Schalke, all hopes of continuing their Champions League dream seems loss. They were outplayed in the first leg against Manchester United so badly some have wondered whether it was the worst Champions League semifinal performance in the history of the tournament, and they travel to Old Trafford looking to overturn a two-goal deficit. United have lost no games at home this season, and have never lost by more than one at Old Trafford against European competition.

In other words, a comeback would be rather thoroughly unlikely here. That said, Schalke should be much improved from last week’s side. In is first-choice centre back Benedikt Howedes, which should sharpen up the defence. Also in are youngsters Julian Draxler and Sergio Escudero, who will be doing their best to drive United’s right side crazy. Schalke still don’t exactly have a stout defence, but should they somehow score an early goal, things will get really interesting.

Manchester United (4-3-3): Edwin van der Sar; Rafael da Silva, Chris Smalling, Johnny Evans, John O’Shea; Darron Gibson, Anderson, Paul Scholes; Nani, Dimitar Berbatov, Antonio Valencia.

According to the club website, “He didn’t train this morning. He has a tight hamstring so we left him today. We’ll see what he’s like tomorrow.” Rooney’s status is clearly in doubt, although ahead 2-0 coming back to Old Trafford, the Red Devils are in the driver’s seat and may not need him anyways. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to have him and as Gene Um from SB Nation’s Manchester United blog The Busby Babe points out, missing training for him doesn’t mean he will miss the match.

As you can see with those names, it’s not as if anyone is going to cry for Sir Alex Ferguson or Manchester United. Rooney may be out, but they can just bring Berbatov in for him. You know, that guy with 22 goals in all competitions this season? It’s not as if the Red Devils are short on options to replace Rooney if he can’t go and in complete reality, it’s not the strikers that will tell the tale for United. As their loss to Arsenal over the weekend proved, it is the midfield that is the real issue for United.

After their 2-0 win in Gelsenkirchen, Manchester United are all but through to the final of the 2010-2011 UEFA Champions League. Even if this was the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, or one of their close rivals in England, a side managed by Alex Ferguson would be called heavy favorites for the return leg of a tie like this one. Schalke 04 are not in that class, and as a result, they are incredibly massive underdogs.

Schalke’s strategy in the first leg seemed to be to defend for 90 minutes, despite the great effort put in by Raul and Jefferson Farfan throughout the game to try to get something started going forward. They were unsuccessful in their endeavors, and Schalke were as thoroughly dominated as a team has been in a UEFA Champions League semifinal in recent history. Though it took United a long time to get a goal, the wait was more due to poor finishing than great defending. They very easily could have had six goals, and Schalke looked very much like a team that is only mid-table in the Bundesliga.