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I
2 - 4
9' [1 - 0] P. Vieira
19' [1 - 1] R. Giggs
35' [2 - 1] D. Bergkamp
55' [2 - 2] C. Ronaldo
58' [2 - 3] C. Ronaldo
88' [2 - 4] J. O'Shea
69' M. Silvestre sent off
There was a huge psychological tension felt before this match. In the tunnel of the stadium, "Man Utd" captain Roy Keane barely avoided a fight with "Arsenal" captain Patrick Vieira, and when the players greeted each other before the match, many "Man Utd" players did not even shake hands with the "Gunners".
The match started with "Arsenal" pressing and within the first five minutes, the Londoners had three real chances to score. In the ninth minute of the match, the pressure from "Arsenal" paid off. After a corner kick by T. Henry, P. Vieira jumped higher than G. Heinze and headed the ball into the goal from a few meters away.
After this goal, the "Gunners" did not intend to retreat, and the "Red Devils" had to harshly stop their attacks, receiving yellow cards in the 12th and 15th minutes for rough fouls by G.Heinze and R.Giggs. However, the belief that "Man Utd" would be crushed that evening was mistaken.
19 minutes into the match, during a beautiful counterattack, W.Rooney passed the ball back to R.Giggs, who shot the ball towards Lauren and it ricocheted into the "Arsenal" goal. Just a few minutes later, C.Ronaldo had a great opportunity to score, but his shot was weak, and "Arsenal" goalkeeper M. Almunia easily caught the ball.
After scoring, "Man Utd" began to put pressure on the "Arsenal" goal. In the 29th minute, R.Pires received a yellow card, but it should be noted that until the end of the first half, the referee did not take any action against W.Rooney, who tried in every possible way to provoke the "Arsenal" players. In one episode, after R.Pires received a yellow card, W.Rooney walked up to the Frenchman and gestured for him to shave his beard.
Soon, "Arsenal" also took advantage of a counterattack. In the 35th minute, P.Vieira started it, passing the ball to T.Henry, who then passed it deeper into the penalty area, where D.Bergkamp angled a shot into the goal from 70 degrees.
With the result at 2-1, the game leveled out, but emotions were running high. W.Rooney had a chance to score, but his shot was saved by M.Almunia. A few minutes later, "Arsenal" could also have scored, but T.Henry's shot hit R.Ferdinand. In the 43rd minute of the match, W.Rooney once again got involved in a conflict, and this time he received a yellow card for using foul language towards the referee and was applauded by all the people at the "Highbury" stadium.
As noted this season, the second half is the strong point of "Man Utd". This was clearly visible. In the 55th minute of the match, W.Rooney passed the ball to C.Ronaldo, and the young Portuguese player equalized the score with a strong shot from the left.
Just three minutes later, during another counterattack, Ryan Giggs ran to the right, towards the goal line, and Sol Campbell and M.Almunia rushed towards him, but Giggs managed to pass the ball towards the goal while falling, and there was no one to stop C.Ronaldo, who tapped in the pass from half a meter away.
After this goal, John O'Shea appeared on the field in place of Darren Fletcher. Just a minute later, C.Ronaldo really wanted to score his hattrick, but he failed to do so, and the young Portuguese player received a yellow card for roughly barging into Ashley Cole after losing the ball to him.
Not even five minutes later, a penalty kick was awarded to "Arsenal" and W.Rooney hit the crossbar and post. "Arsenal" players seemed a bit shaken. In the 68th minute, D.Bergkamp entered the penalty area and fell, but the referee did not award a penalty, and in this episode, M.Silvestre's nerves failed him - he headbutted F.Ljungberg in the face and was sent off the field.
After this dismissal, W.Brown appeared on the field instead of C.Ronaldo. With about fifteen minutes left, "Gunners" threw all their remaining weapons onto the field: F.Fabregas and J.A.Reyes appeared on the pitch. "Man Utd" closed ranks in their half of the field and all together tried to defend. Attacks followed one after the other, but "Man Utd" defended excellently even with only ten men.
With about 10 minutes left to play, Louis Saha appeared on the field instead of Ryan Giggs and, as soon as he entered the field and tried to shoot, he injured S. Campbell and he could not continue the match. In his place, Justin Hoyte appeared on the field.
However, "Arsenal", pressing on their opponents' goal, forgot about the safety of their own goal. This is how it happened in the first matches of this season, when the "Red Devils" celebrated a 2-0 victory, and the second goal of the match was scored by W. Rooney during a counterattack.
This time, J. O'Shea joined the attack, and after some accurate passes from W.Rooney and L.Saha, he lobbed the goalkeeper from about 20 meters. At 4-2, the "Gunners" realized that they would have to acknowledge the superiority of "Man Utd" that evening.
With the referee adding five minutes, T. Henry could have scored a beautiful goal, but his shot hit directly at Roy Carroll.
With about a minute left to play, a near-riot almost broke out when J.A.Reyes roughly brought down J.O'Shea. Almost all "Man Utd" players attacked the Spaniard, but the referee managed to calm things down by showing Reyes a yellow card.
After the match, the faces of the "Arsenal" fans showed great sadness. They could not understand how this could have happened.
In addition to these matches, on Tuesday in the English "Premier" league, four more matches were played. Their results:
2 - 1
35' [0 - 1] M. Christie
41' [1 - 1] M. Taylor
58' [2 - 1] A. Yakubu
2 - 2
48' [0 - 1] A. Johnson
82' [1 - 1] K. Campbell
89' [2 - 1] R. Earnshaw
90' [2 - 2] A. Riihilahti
3 - 1
50' [1 - 0] E.H. Diouf 11m penalty
66' [1 - 1] J. Defoe
86' [2 - 1] T.B. Haim
88' [3 - 1] K. Davies
1 - 2
20' [1 - 0] S. Bartlett
61' [1 - 1] F. Morientes
78' [1 - 2] J.A. Riise
