Efter: Blackpool – United

United vände underläge 0-2 till seger 3-2 mot Blackpool för att ta säsongens tredje bortaseger i ligan. Efter matchen var det förstås glada tongångar från Unitedlägret.

KOMMENTARER EFTER MATCHEN
Sir Alex Ferguson menade att det var Uniteds historia som klubb som vann matchen åt laget. Han medger att United var utspelade i första halvlek men påpekar att laget aldrig gav slaget förlorat. Vidare menar han att Ryan Giggs inhopp gjorde stor skillnad och att Uniteds andra halvlek var mycket bra. Till sist riktade Ferguson beröm till anfallarna Chicharito och Berbatov:

”I have to say, it’s down to the history of the club. We just never give in. In the first half we were battered. We had a terrible first half, it must be said. We didn’t create anything like we should have been doing. But I know the game is never done.

”We made a change at half-time and Ryan Giggs made a tremendous difference. We started to penetrate, we started to play our way and we’ve run out deserved winners in the end. […] The first half wasn’t very good at all. But we kept going, we kept playing our football and kept penetrating and got the rewards for that.

”Certainly in the second half we played well. I don’t know the reasons for the first-half performance. We just seemed to be all over the place at times. We were maybe a little bit too confident. The work-rate wasn’t there that was in the second half. We had to get our finger out in the second half, and when we did we were a good team.

”Chicharito’s pace and timing of his runs is fantastic. The Blackpool bench and their fans were claiming for offside but you can see now that he wasn’t offside. He’s so good at it. He could have scored four goals, actually. He had two headers and went through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. He’s got that wonderful instinct about space. He was another great addition to us.

”[Berbatov is] having a great season. He has got such great talent. It was great composure for the third goal. I was screaming at him to square it to Chicharito. But, no, he’s got the confidence and ability to do what he did.”

Dimitar Berbatov talade om känslan i laget och att laget aldrig ger upp – hur illa det än ser ut att vara. Berbatov pekar ocksÃ¥ pÃ¥ att det var en svÃ¥r match pÃ¥ en hÃ¥rd arena med en dÃ¥lig plan. Han tycker att United var dÃ¥liga i första halvlek och att man hade tur som bara lÃ¥g under med tvÃ¥ mÃ¥l. Precis som Ferguson tycker han att det var Giggs som förändrade matchen. Till sist pekar han pÃ¥ mÃ¥lskytt Chicharito och nämner sina tvÃ¥ mÃ¥l men är noga med att poängtera att det var en lagseger:

”We are a team that believes that no matter how bad the game might be for us – whether it’s 1-0 or 2-0 we are always confident that if we can score one then we can score more. That was the case today. We fought like a team, especially in the second half. The first half was not so good for us and Blackpool played a good game, but in the second half we showed spirit and we won.

”You come here and it’s not such a friendly ground and the pitch is not as good as back home at Old Trafford, so it’s a bit difficult sometimes because the ball is jumping around. Blackpool played a good game in the first half and scored some good goals – they could have scored more in the first half. But, lucky for us, it was only 2-0. In the dressing room at half-time we told ourselves, ’we can do it, we can do it’. And we did.

”Yes [the substitutions changed the game]. Giggs’s experience, his crossing of the ball and his intelligence made a difference. Chicharito is always going for goal; the only thing in his mind is to score. He proved that today. I scored a good goal as well, two actually, but it was the team spirit that won the game.”

Blackpools manager Ian Holloway var bedrövad efter matchen. Han pekar på att United inte ger upp och att hans spelare har mycket att lära från sina motståndare, framför allt när det gäller tempo, träning och kondition. Samtidigt vill han att Blackpool ska ta med sig insatsen till framtida matcher mot lag som kanske inte är lika bra som United:

”We’re absolutely gutted and devastated that we lost 3-2. I think 2-0 is always risky, but against the champions of so many times who want their crown back and haven’t been beaten in 27 games, they aren’t really going to roll over. My lads have got to realise that we need to up our tempo of our training to get as fit and as good as them. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and try and get hold of what we did, lift it up to their level and try and do that against other teams who aren’t quite as famous as them.”

ÖVRIGT
United noterade sin 28:e raka match förlustfria match i ligan. Klubbrekordet är 29 och kan tangeras mot Aston Villa på tisdag.

Rafael blev utbytt efter otäcka scener. Beskedet efter matchen var dock lugnande – det rörde sig ”bara” om en hjärnskakning och Rafael väntas kunna Ã¥tervända till spel redan i början pÃ¥ februari.

[poll id=”62″]