MANCHESTER UNITED 3 CITY 1
United win 4-3 on aggregate
United win 4-3 on aggregate
Carling Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg
27th January 2010
attendance 74,576
Scorers
City Tevez(76)
United Scholes(51), Carrick(73), Rooney(91)
ref Howard Webb
City Given, Richards, Boyata, Kompany, Garrido, Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Barry, Zabaleta, Tevez, Bellamy – subs Ireland(65), Adebayor(74), Taylor(unused), Onuoha(unused), Sylvinho(unused), Petrov(unused), Ibrahim(unused)
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United van der Sar, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Carrick, Nani, Scholes, Fletcher, Rooney, Giggs – subs Brown(74), Valencia(90) Kuszczak(unused), Owen(unused), Berbatov(unused), Park(unused), Vidic(unused)
.
taken from CRAIG BELLAMY: GOODFELLA by Craig Bellamy with Oliver Holt
I’m sure United realised how important it was to try to stop us making that psychological step, too. Sir Alex Ferguson had been talking about us being ‘noisy neighbours’ and they were desperate to silence us. They went some of the way to doing that at Old Trafford in the second leg when Paul Scholes put them ahead on the night. Michael Carrick put them 2-0 up but then 15 minutes from the end, I swung over a cross and Carlos darted ahead of Rio Ferdinand, stuck out his right leg and flicked the ball past Edwin van der Sar to bring the scores level on aggregate. It looked then as though the tie was heading to extra-time. If that happened, having interrupted their momentum, I fancied our chances. The last few minutes were mayhem. I’d already been hit by a coin when I went over to take a corner earlier in the game and the atmosphere got more and more intense. Then, two minutes into injury time, Giggs swung a cross over and Rooney, who was in the form of his life that season, rose unchallenged in our box and headed it past Shay Given to take United to the final. When we got back to our changing room, we could hear the United boys celebrating next door. I was devastated. We’d got what we deserved. We’d been naïve in the build-up and we had fed them motivation. I knew that, in time, we would go on and win the league and the Champions League but I wondered if my time was running out to win something with the club.
I’m sure United realised how important it was to try to stop us making that psychological step, too. Sir Alex Ferguson had been talking about us being ‘noisy neighbours’ and they were desperate to silence us. They went some of the way to doing that at Old Trafford in the second leg when Paul Scholes put them ahead on the night. Michael Carrick put them 2-0 up but then 15 minutes from the end, I swung over a cross and Carlos darted ahead of Rio Ferdinand, stuck out his right leg and flicked the ball past Edwin van der Sar to bring the scores level on aggregate. It looked then as though the tie was heading to extra-time. If that happened, having interrupted their momentum, I fancied our chances. The last few minutes were mayhem. I’d already been hit by a coin when I went over to take a corner earlier in the game and the atmosphere got more and more intense. Then, two minutes into injury time, Giggs swung a cross over and Rooney, who was in the form of his life that season, rose unchallenged in our box and headed it past Shay Given to take United to the final. When we got back to our changing room, we could hear the United boys celebrating next door. I was devastated. We’d got what we deserved. We’d been naïve in the build-up and we had fed them motivation. I knew that, in time, we would go on and win the league and the Champions League but I wondered if my time was running out to win something with the club.
