Inter v United – Match Preview

By: Taylor Rockwell | February 24th, 2009

UEFA Champions League @ The San Siro
Tuesday 24th February 2009
Kickoff – 19:45 GMT (2:45PM EST)

Recent Results: United
- February 23, 2009: United 2 – Blackburn 1 @ Old Trafford (Premiership)
- February 18, 2009: United 3 – Fulham 0 @ Old Trafford (Premiership)
- February 15, 2009: United 4 – Derby 1 @ Pride Park (FA Cup)
- February 8, 2009: United 1 – West Ham 0 @ The Boleyn Ground (Premiership)
- January 31, 2009: United 1 – Everton 0 @ Old Trafford (Premiership)

Recent Results: Inter
- February 21, 2009: Inter 2 – Bologna 1 @ Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, Bologna (Serie A)
- February 15, 2009: Inter 2 – AC Milan 1 @ The San Siro (Serie A)
- February 7, 2009: Inter 3 – Lecce 0 @ Stadio Via del Mare, Lecce (Serie A)
- February 1, 2009: Inter 1 – Torino 1 @ The San Siro (Serie A)
- January 28, 2009: Inter 2 – Catania 0 @ Stadio Angelo Massimino, Catania (Serie A)

How They Got Here: United
United finished top of Group E with 10 points (one better than second place Villarreal). Despite two goalless draws with the Yellow Submarine, the Red Devils were able to snatch vital points against Celtic and AaB. Most notably, throughout the entire group stage, United never conceded all three points (something they haven’t done for their past 19 Champions League matches).

How They Got Here: Inter
Inter finished second in Group B with 8 points (2 worse than group champion Panathinaikos). The Italian side dropped points against every team in the group (the other two being Werder Bremen and Anorthosis Famagusta).

Points to Ponder:
- Apparently, the United defense rejects the notion of playing keepie-ups with a Fifa regulation football, and instead elects to toy around with battle axes. At least, that’s the most logical explanation I can find for why it seems an impossibility to keep a fully fit back four on the pitch for an extended period. Obviously, Vidic is out (suspension), but with no Rafael in the squad list and apparent injury concerns for Jonny Evans, Wes Brown, Gary Neville, and John O’Shea, we could easily see a makeshift defense in Milan tonight. Or, the more likely scenario (READ: what I’m hoping for) is that this would be the patented Ferguson “mind game”.

- Unfortunately, the only manager who seems impervious to Fergie’s games is Inter’s Jose Mourinho. From the BBC, “The Portuguese coach masterminded Porto’s defeat of United at the same stage of the competition in 2004, where a last-minute goal from Costinha prompted him to sprint from the dug-out to join his players’ celebrations. While in charge at Chelsea he avoided defeat in all but one of his 10 meetings against Ferguson and clinched consecutive Premier League titles.” Fergie brushed off the stats, saying, “I don’t think about the defeats to different managers. One defeat in 12 depends on how you look at it. It wasn’t as though we lost all 11 games, if it was I’d worry. What matters is tomorrow night.” While I’ve generally learned to trust Lord Ferg, I think you would be hard pressed to find a Chelsea fan out there who wouldn’t agree that with Mourinho in charge, the Blues were a far more daunting team. Jose always seems to know how to play United, and if Fergie hopes to get any points out of this, he had better have a few tricks up his sleeve.

- After a Monday afternoon outburst, wherein Mourinho took credit for all recent Red Devil successes, the never humble Portuguese had remained surprisingly quiet about his expectations for tonight. According to ESPN, the Inter manager predicted “that the clash between the runaway league leaders in Italy and England will go to extra-time at Old Trafford in a fortnight.” Fergie, it appears, feels otherwise, stating, “I don’t think it will go to extra-time. It will be decided Tuesday. If we score we will have a great chance.” Does that mean United will push forward or invoke their usual European counter-attacking style? I’m guess the latter, but only time will tell.

Predicted Lineup: Inter
Julio Cesar, Maicon, Ivan Cordoba, Cristian Chivu, Davide Santon, Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Sulley Muntari, Dejan Stankovic, Adriano, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Predicted Lineup: Manchester United
Edwin van der Sar, John O’Shea, Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Evans, Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov

Scoreline Predictions: A 1-1 draw would be fantastic, but I could definitely see this as a 2-1 defeat. I hate how precious that away goal is, unless of course it’s United scoring it. Then it’s awesome.