Manchester United Edge Sunderland

Nani

Although Bul­garia player Dim­itar Ber­batov was waste­ful in front of goal against Sun­der­land on Sunday, Manchester United went on to dom­in­ate the game with Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney cre­at­ing a string of scor­ing oppor­tun­ites. The ever present Nani even­tu­ally secured a nar­row 1–0 tri­umph for Sir Alex Ferguson´s title chas­ing side when the free flow­ing flank­man man­aged to net the only goal of the match in the 28th minute of the game.

That did not dis­hearten Sun­der­land and the home side came close to scor­ing on sev­eral occa­sions before the sound of the half time whistle. Shortly before the break David Meyler col­lided with Nani and the mid­fielder was replaced by Lee Cater­mole. Manchester United kept up the pres­sure after the resump­tion and Nani should have scored a second goal in the second half but his chip was straight at the goal­keeper. In the 71st minute of the tightly con­tested match, Sir Alex Fer­guson most wisely replaced Dim­itar Ber­batov with Michael Car­rick in an attempt to strengthen the Manchester United mid­field. Only seven minutes later the Eng­land inter­na­tional almost doubled the lead when his effort was blocked off the line by Michael Turner. Buoyed by their sup­port­ers, Sun­der­land went on fight­ing for the equal­iser until the final whistle but The Black Cats found them­selves unable to find the net. On a rather cold after­noon on Wearside, Manchester United com­pleted their mis­sion by col­lect­ing the three points they needed to keep them­selves in the title hunt.

Sun­der­land Start­ing Lineup: Craig Gor­don, John Mensah, Kieran Richard­son, Michael Turner, Phil­lip Bard­s­ley, Lorik Cana (cap­tain), Steed Mal­branque, Jordan Hende­r­son, David Meyler, Dar­ren Bent, Fra­izer Camp­bell. Manchester United Start­ing Lineup: Edwin van der Sar, Nemanja Vidic, Jonathan Evans, Patrice Evra, John O’Shea, Dar­ren Fletcher, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs (cap­tain), Nani, Dim­itar Ber­batov, Wayne Rooney.

Manchester United now depend on a brave effort from Wigan against Chelsea.

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