An energy supping and emotional taxing Manchester United exit from the UEFA Champions League at Old Trafford by the English football darling of the past was the least palatable venture for the players, manager and players considering the circumstances.
Real Madrid who are coached by former Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, fulfilled the fixture amid an atmosphere of expectation and natural levels of fighting appetite that can only be bred and nurtured in the jungle for consumption by predators like lions, panthers, tigers, leopards and other man-eaters.
As pumped up by their back to back victories over Barcelona, there was no way they were going to lose to Manchester United on the day, despite the United sublime 4-0 win over Wigan over the weekend. It was obvious this was going to be very sore as Cristiano Ronaldo, a former employee at Old Trafford is in scintillating form.
As an ex-EPL member alongside Mourinho and the other goalscorer in Luka Modric, Ronaldo was respectful after scoring the killer goal, as did The Only One by leaving the field of play early. So modest was Mourinho he confessed 'the best team lost'. If it is not the craziest thing he has ever said, I do not know him that well.
Many people spend much of their time transmitting the energy radiated by the players, Sir Alex Ferguson and the TV commentators about how ridiculous Nani's sending off was. Let the world stop sugarcoat the case to afford themselves the license to lament. As unintentional as the case was, that was dangerous play. That Nani did not mean it has no bearing to the danger poised by the foot on the player fouled. Arbeloa may have suffered even to death, had his head been that low and coming to contact with Nani's foot.
That qualifies that scenario as dangerous play and the consequences of such are in black and white. Sympathy and being human always see off a few cases and that has made people and TV commentators to believe certain issues need to be qualified in a reasonable way. In most cases they are, but in others, the rule of the book takes over and yesterday, it faced Nani and he had to walk.
My point is that United did not need the sympathy of match official to win that match. Even without that sending, they were not the masters of their destiny. I am actually convinced they actually played better after Nani's sending off and they fought harder. exactly the way they should have from start to finish.
SAF left Wayne Rooney on the bench, maybe due to fitness issues and there are many things United could have done to rescue the match before and after Nani was sent off. It is not necessary to make the referee the man of the match. Many found out the referee follows Real Madrid and Ronaldo ot twitter and not United or a United player. They question his impatrtiality and coincidence of the case.
Just because they did not that, they were never the best team in that match. They hoped Real Madrid would be a notch less competent. It was going to be interesting to see them lose with eleven men on the field and now because they did not, it seems we have a field day talking about how bad the referee's decision was. Actually, the referee's worst decisions were denying United penalty kicks, I think twice.
As for the sending off, give us a break.
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