Shakhtar Donetsk: A cold point

Picture perfect.

We would all have loved 3 points but a point is not so  bad. As group standings, we are second to Shakhtar but we have same points and same goal difference. On 23rd this month we will host Real Sociedad and Shakhtar will host Bayer Leverkusen.

Our next opponents are yet to win a match. They suffered a 0-2 home defeat to Shakhtar and lost 1-0 to Leverkusen. Bring on Real Sociedad.

Rooney picked another injury during training! It doesn't seem to be serious as Moyes planned to use him as a sub but decided against it as to not risk any further complications. Moyes also promised that Rooney will be ready for a trip to Sunderland this week end. And this time it was Welbeck. Does Welbz have a magic touch like Jones? Only time will tell....

Ryan Giggs broke yet another record. He is now the player with the most appearances in Champions League. The record he broke was former Madridisti Raul. Happy 145th Uncle Ryan.

As for the match:

I watched this one at a bar. I normally don't like it when fans speak negatively about players especially saying they will do bad even before kick-off. So, when people were running their mouths on why Moyes picked Welbz over Kagawa I was a bit disappointed. For the lack of nothing to do and nothing to say on Welbz' defense I checked Twitter and saw this tweet (forgot the sender, sorry) saying Welbz will do better because somehow Champions League is his area of expertise.

I turned and said that to fellow fans as if they were my own words ( sorry again sender). They all laughed and came back with even more facts to prove me wrong. Not owning the idea, it was simply a battle I could not even fight.

Welbz being the typical Man Utd player spoke for himself! That was beautiful.

Carrick is the official man of the match but mine was Rafael. Young Rafael is back, as fearless, determined and confident as always. From where I was watching, he stole the show.

He is back!

 



And then there was Fellaini. Those fouls, was Fellaini going for Scholes of the year?

As for the general performance it wasn't so bad. Most notably was the way the team was defending. I say the team because that defense was surely a team work. Even Welbz was at the back and he was doing a damn good job.

All in a day's work.

As I said at the beginning of this post, a point is not so bad.

Moyes;

"The result is just a point, it doesn't take us any further just now and we know that we will have to win more games to progress in the competition. But on paper this looked like a hard away tie so we've picked a good point." 

But Welbz is having none of that;

"We're a bit disappointed, WE'RE MANCHESTER UNITED and we want to win every game so getting a point here, we've got to be satisfied with it."

And finally, a big shout out to these brave Shaks.

Shirtless in that weather! I wonder what you'll be wearing come Dec 10th, should the match be rated 21?

 

 



UEFA YOUTH LEAGUE

As for the youngsters, they are on 3rd position and 3pts behind leaders Real Sociedad. On the next match, Man Utd u19 will host Real Sociedad u19. To proceed to the next round we need to finish first or second. Good luck boys.

BONUS:

Jesse Lingard! Remember that kid who finished the tour a top goal scorer and was voted Man of the Tour by last season's top goal scorer among others? Yes, that Jesse Lingard.

Jesse joined Birmingham on a month long loan. On his Birmingham debut he scored four goals and handed the club a 4-1 win against Sheffield Wednesday. Three of his four goals were scored within 14 minutes. A hattrick on his debut, does he remind you of a certain #10?

This is one player we need to watch. Birmingham City coach, Lee Clark is already talking about wishing the youngster will stay for more than a month.

Somewhere in that pile of happy people there is a reason for their happiness. That reason's name is Jesse Lingard.

 

 

Keep the Red Flag Flying High Jesse.