Manchester United Shock Defeat Ends in Drama
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Uniteds title hopes took another shock blow in West London as Fulham FC claimed their first victory at Craven Cottage over Manchester United in 45 years.
The Premier League title race was thrown wide open today as leaders Manchester United endured a shock defeat at Craven Cottage.
United suffered their first successive league loss since 2005, ending a run of 147 games without back-to-back defeats. It was a historic win for Fulham FC, who claimed their first victory at Craven Cottage over Manchester United in 45 years.
After 18 minutes of sustained pressure by Fulham, United midfielder Paul Scholes came to the aid of United keeper Van der Sar using his hand to deflect a shot from Bobby Zamora.
Scholes was sent off for his hand ball awarding Fulham a deserved penalty.
The spot kick was taken by Fulham stalwart, Danny Murphy, who casually side-footed the ball past Van der Sar to hand Fulham a 1-0 lead.
Wayne Rooney was sent on as a half-time substitute in place of Dimitar Berbatov who fell awkwardly on his ankle. The extent of the injury remains unknown.
Rooney brought new life to the United attack and led a 20 minute assault on the Fulham goal. Brilliant goalkeeping from Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer added to United’s frustrations.
Solid defense that saw Ronaldo demobilized eventually pushed the Red’s discipline past its breaking point. and then the drama followed.
United could count themselves lucky that Ronaldo’s temper was not matched by a card of the same color. He lost the plot with his pretentiousness and moaning.
It was bizarre; amid laughs and chants of outrage, Ronaldo kept showing off the top of his thigh to the referee to suggest that he had been assaulted. The official was unimpressed enough to give Ronaldo, who had already been booked, a final warning.
As the Ronaldo show reached its final crescendo, 86 minutes of positive attacking play from Fulham was rewarded by Zoltan Gera’s acrobatic strike that doubled their lead and sealed one of Fulham’s greatest victories at Craven Cottage.
Seconds later Rooney, already cautioned, was ordered to retake a quickly-worked free kick. In outrage, Rooney threw the ball back towards the official.
The petulant display earned Rooney his second yellow card of the afternoon and the England star was sent off. United’s afternoon was summed up as Rooney slammed the corner flag with his hand, frustrated and resigned to losing the game.
Manchester United now face an uphill struggle with key players Rooney, Scholes, Vidic and possibly Berbatov ruled out for their next match against Aston Villa. Ronaldo was not far away from being added to that list.
Despite the shock upset, United will still hold a game in hand over Liverpool and Chelsea, and are fortunate to be able to call on a quality list of reserves that would make the starting line-up every game for most other Premiership sides.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was disappointed with Rooney’s sending off: “The ball was thrown to where the free-kick was being taken – did it hit the referee? No.”
Ferguson admitted that the referee was incidental to the outcome of the match: “But there’s no point talking about the referee – we didn’t play well enough in the first half and that’s why we lost.”
Fulham:
Booked: Pantsil, Dempsey.
Goals: Murphy 18 pen, Gera 87.
Man Utd:
Sent Off: Scholes (18), Rooney (89).
Booked: Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, Rooney.
Attendance: 25,652
Referee: Phil Dowd
Did you know that Pantsil does a solo lap of honour after every home win or draw to give recognition to the fans?
I saw it.
Pantsil for captain! Just kidding
but you love his attitude. I got some photos of his victory lap… I’ll upload one later.
Possible hint of bias in that match report. Hmmm!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha