Manchester United V Stoke City 2–0

Javier Hernan­dez

Manchester United col­lec­ted a mor­ale boost­ing 2–0 win over Stoke City at Old Traf­ford on Tues­day. The Reds took the lead in the 38th minute through a well taken pen­alty from Javier Hernan­dez before Dim­itar Ber­batov made the score read 2–0 in the home team´s favour with a second spot-kick eight minutes into the second period.

Des­pite dom­in­at­ing the game from the first whistle, the Manchester United play­ers struggled to break down the resi­li­ent Stoke City defence. Ever­green mid­field orches­trator Paul Scholes could have put the home team ahead in the 21st minute of the match but his vol­ley went just a few inches wide of the post. Seven minutes before the sound of the half time sig­nal, how­ever, attack minded mid­fielder Ji-sung Park won a pen­alty which Javier Hernan­dez sub­sequently con­ver­ted to give Manchester United a fully deserved lead. Five minutes later, though, Paul Scholes was on the receiv­ing end of a yel­low card for a tough chal­lenge on Trin­idad and Tobago inter­na­tional Ken­wyne Jones. Then in the 53rd minute of play, Ant­o­nio Valen­cia man­aged to gain another pen­alty kick for Manchester United and it was this time taken by former Bul­garia inter­na­tional centre for­ward Dim­itar Ber­batov who hammered home his sev­enth goal of the Eng­lish Premier League cam­paign. Old Traf­ford gaf­fer Sir Alex Fer­guson even­tu­ally decided to make a change in the 74th minute when he replaced goal scorer Javier Hernan­dez with France U19 inter­na­tional mid­field player Paul Pogba. And although the per­sist­ent Manchester United side con­tin­ued to dom­in­ate for the rest of the second period, Sir Alex Ferguson´s title chal­lengers failed in their attempt to find their third goal of the game. Manchester United Team: Ben Amos, Chris Smalling, Rio Ferdin­and, Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra, Ant­o­nio Valen­cia, Paul Scholes, Michael Car­rick,  Ji-Sung Park, Dim­itar Ber­batov, Javier Hernan­dez. Sub­sti­tute: Paul Pogba.

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