The Reds Held To A Draw By Benfica

Dar­ren Fletcher

After bag­ging three import­ant points against Otelul Gal­ati in their last Cham­pi­ons League match, Manchester United were brought down to earth as they were held to a dis­ap­point­ing 2–2 draw by Ben­fica at Old Traf­ford on Tues­day. The Reds came from behind to lead 2–1 cour­tesy of a goal apiece from Dim­itar Ber­batov and Dar­ren Fletcher only to be pulled back to par­ity by a goal from mid­field dynamo Pablo Aima

Manchester United sup­port­ers expect­ing the team to make a strong start to the game were in for an early shock as Ben­fica took the lead in the third minute of the Cham­pi­ons League encounter. A dan­ger­ous cross ball from attack minded mid­field player Nic­olas Gaitan deflec­ted off unfor­tu­nate Manchester United defender Phil Jones and into back of the net to put the vis­it­ing side ahead. Manchester United man­aged to even the score after 28 minutes of play, how­ever, as Dim­itar Ber­batov con­ver­ted an accur­ate cross from winger Nani. The Reds went ahead thir­teen minutes into the second half thanks to a goal from Dar­ren Fletcher but Pablo Aimar equal­ised for Ben­fica only a couple of minutes later. Manchester United looked to Dim­itar Ber­batov for a bit of magic but the big centre forward´s luck was out. With fif­teen minutes remain­ing, Michael Car­rick was deservedly booked after a tough chal­lenge on goal scorer Pablo Aimar and the mid­fielder will now miss the final group game due to yel­low card accu­mu­la­tion. Sir Alex Fer­guson replaced the anonym­ous Ant­o­nio Valen­cia with Javier Hernan­dez in the 80th minute but there was too little time left for the Mex­ican attacker to get involved in the game. Although The Reds pressed hard in the clos­ing stages of the game, the frantic home team were unable to find the back of the net. Thanks to the 2–2 draw against Manchester United at Old Traf­ford last night The Eagles now top Group C.

Manchester United Books