Thursday, November 26, 2009

Manchester United unbeaten streak ended

Manchester United's 23-match unbeaten streak at home in the Champions League came to an end as they went down 1-0 to Besiktas at Old Trafford.

United, who only needed one point to win Group B with one match remaining, fell victim to a long-range bullet from Rodrigo Tello as the Turkish champions snapped their seven-year away losing run in the competition.
Last season's runners-up must now win away to Wolfsburg on December 8 if they are to top Group B while Besiktas narrowly kept alive their hopes of earning a Europa League berth ahead of CSKA Moscow.
United made a blistering start to the match, swamping the Besiktas defence and enjoying a host of gilt-edged chances.
Rafael found Gabriel Obertan within two minutes of the start, the Frenchman squaring a great chance to Federico Macheda, who just failed to get a touch.
Nemanja Vidic also missed a sitter, his header from an Anderson corner somehow spinning off at a right-angle to the goal despite the Serb having done all the hard work in losing Matteo Ferrari towards the right post.
Macheda came closest for United, in the 19th minute, when he received the ball on the right wing before cutting back inside with a swagger and drilling a low shot just past the right post.
But it was Besiktas who made the most of their opportunities, with Tello unleashing a bullet of a shot after being allowed space and time in midfield.
The ball took a slight deflection off the shoulder of a back-tracking Rafael, just enough to wrong-foot Ben Foster, before curling into the back of the net on the left side of goal.

And the Turkish champions could have made it two just before the interval after a delightful spot of one-touch football between Ekrem Dag and Tello. The Chilean did well to hold up the ball on the right-hand corner of the area before laying it off for Michael Fink, whose low shot narrowly dribbled past the right post to let United off the hook.
The hosts continued to enjoy the lion's share of the possession after the interval and again crafted a number of great chances to get the point they needed to win the group.
But again those chances went begging as Besiktas' impressive defence held firm.
Two shots in as many minutes on the hour mark from Obertan should have seen United level as the Frenchman first sent the ball skidding past the right post from the left corner of the box before landing a header on the top of the net from an inch-perfect Macheda pass.
Sir Alex Ferguson slowly began to introduce his more experienced bench from the 70th minute onwards as Michael Owen, Michael Carrick and Patrice Evra all took to the field to help United pushed for the equaliser.
Evra had a great penalty shout turned down just as they clock ticked over to the 90th minute as he went down under the challenge of Ibrahim Kas. The Frenchman surged into the box right in front of referee Stephane Lannoy and went down perhaps a little easily.
But Besiktas were lucky to escape as Kas clearly made no attempt to play the ball instead blocking Evra with an outstretched arm.
A frantic five minutes of extra time saw yet more drama.
Keeper Foster went up for a corner, causing all kinds of problems as Macheda met it with a brilliant header turned behind by the fingers of Rustu Recber before the visiting keeper again denied Wes Brown from the following set-piece.
Michael Carrick took a punt on the stroke of full-time when a low shot from the edge of the area but Rustu, who just moments before had been booked for wasting time, was equal to the task and Besiktas held on for the win.

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