Away to Benfica

An away draw against the main rival in your Champions League group was never a bad thing. And that was exactly that early this morning when United played Benfica in Lisbon. It ended one a piece.

On the balance of things, United should be the happier of the two. In the first half an hour, we were completely overwhelmed in the middle of the park without the Benfica goalie needing to make a single save. Benfica opened the score with a superb play and we were in danger of going two goals down before the end of the half. Against the run of play, Giggsy equalised with under five minutes before the break. A superb individual effort.

The score stayed at one a piece until the end of the game with United getting the better of the early exchanges in the second half. By the end, the away team should be thankful of the agility of the reserve goalkeeper, Anders Lindgaard with a string of great saves.

I thought the problem was we were getting overran in the middle of the park despite having Giggs, Carrick and Fletcher flooding the midfield. They were easily bypassed with our frontline best described as statuesque. The defense also lacked the physical presence of Ferdinand and Vidic. The young combination of Evans and Smalling struggled at times.

But then again, like I said in the first line, United was still in great shape and should qualify to the latter stages.