Well wouldn't you just know it! I blogged earlier on in the preview for this draw that United could take on any other side in the draw but Inter Milan. Much as the lads from Italy are a beatable side over two legs, many factors are going to work against United such that it will be one of their biggest achievements to see off Jose's Inter at this stage.
Ideally, Inter by Feb will be almost certainly Champions of Italy for a fourth time in 4 years and so their focus will be solely on this tie. Secondly, it's the Jose Mourinho X-factor. Here is one man who knows exactly how to beat Manchester United. If there is one manager whom Fergie respects because of his tactical knowledge of the game, it's Mourinho. It's why he never got into mind-games with him whilst at Chelsea. He left that to Wenger and Benitez, and the two only know best what they got from the arrogant Portuguese's dictionary of insults!
Their tactical discipline might just be the difference as I'm quite confident that this tie will be short of plenty of goals. It's going to be more like the 2005/06 season when we played Milan and lost both legs narrowly. United have not shown the kind of tactical discipline to win difficult games so far. In fact, I can only point out our victory over the Bitters as our only show of tactical discipline. So many times this season, we have conceded goals due to lack of concentration so that's another another area of worry.
I'm not saying that the tie is way beyond United as we certainly aren't pushovers ourselves. But what we have to do is something like the we sorted out Barcelona at the Camp Nou and mix that with how we played in the return leg of the semi at home--all in one game! We've certainly ever done that and the reward was big. That was the only time we beat Chelsea in the league under Mourinho. Darren Fletcher scoring a memorable goal and my goodness what a contribution he'll make if he lives up to his big-game player tag. This time would side with Fergie and start him!
Labels: UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
