Sir Alex Ferguson made 10 changes to his Manchester United side, including bringing back Wayne Rooney, and paid the price in a 0-0 draw with Rangers in their Champions League opener at Old Trafford.
To add to the cost of the result, United winger Antonio Valencia was stretchered off with a fractured ankle in the second half after an innocuous-looking challenge.
Ferguson created a stir even before kick-off, making sweeping changes to the United lineup that drew at Everton on Saturday, although two of those alterations saw the return of Rooney, rested at the weekend, and injury-prone defender Rio Ferdinand. Still, the fact that the United manager was clearly choosing a team with one eye upon the weekend Premier League fixture with Liverpool was always likely to be perceived as a calculated gamble and little that occurred over the opening 45 minutes, at least, altered that view.
PHOTO: AFP
“The criticism will be why didn’t I play a stronger team,” Ferguson said. “I think I played a very strong team. Eight of them played against Chelsea in the Community Shield. It’s a terrific squad and there was no problem playing them.”
Rangers’ experienced defender David Weir claimed the visitors had not taken any encouragement from reading United’s team sheet.
“They could make 20 changes and still have quality,” Weir said. “When you see Ryan Giggs coming on then that shows you the strength in depth.”
The first half offered little in the way of entertainment or goal threat and, indeed, the most noteworthy incident came late in the period and involved Rooney, who appeared to twist his ankle painfully as he ran to close down Steven Davis. Fortunately for United, after a few minutes of gingerly testing his ankle, Rooney was fit to continue, but his impact on the first period was negligible.
On one of the few occasions when the visiting defense allowed him a sliver of space, Rooney opted to pass to teammate Javier Hernandez when the better option would have appeared to have been to shoot. The effort was blocked and a rare United foray came to nothing.
Darron Gibson, called into the center of United’s midfield, unleashed two characteristic long-range efforts, the first of which from 25m whistled narrowly past the Rangers’ post.
The fact that Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor was booked as halftime approached, after being warned a number of times for time-wasting, summed up the Scottish team’s approach, which had proved far too dogged for a frustrated United to break down.
The second half opened with Gibson launching another speculative long-range attempt that cleared McGregor’s goal by some margin and Rangers, playing with Kenny Miller as a lone forward, were clearly in equally dogged mood.
Indeed, the Scots even responded with a rare, promising attack of their own as the busy Steven Naismith chipped in a cross from the left with which Sasa Papac almost made contact, before it was gathered easily by United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak.
The injury to Valencia brought Ryan Giggs into the fray and, following the lengthy delay, finally seemed to breathe some life into United.
Giggs made a couple of threatening bursts, one of which in the 70th minute resulted in a cross that Rooney headed disappointingly wide. The England center-forward was clearly growing frustrated by events and he petulantly grabbed Maurice Edu’s shirt, then bundled into goalkeeper McGregor.
An attempted chip, after 77 minutes, at least demonstrated Rooney was still trying and thinking of ways to break down the massed Rangers ranks, but the effort offered no problem for McGregor.
TWENTE 2, INTER 2
AFP, ENSCHEDE, Netherlands
Theo Janssen starred for FC Twente on their Champions League debut as they held holders Inter to a 2-2 draw on Tuesday.
Wesley Sneijder gave the visitors the lead on his return to his homeland, but Janssen smacked in a stunning free-kick before Diego Milito’s own-goal gave the hosts the lead, only for Samuel Eto’o to earn the Italians a point.
All four goals came in a pulsating first half before both teams seemed to settle for their first Group A point.
Inter coach Rafael Benitez was a satisfied man and defended his striker Milito, who has yet to find the net at the right end this season.
“The first half was very difficult, but we did very well in the second, we controlled the game and I’m satisfied with the second half against a difficult team,” Benitez said. “They’re a tough team because they play three up front and they’re not easy to control. They play long balls and it’s not easy to pick up the second ball. We struggled.”
“In the first half they had one or two dangerous crosses. We’d talked about the intensity of them playing at home,” he said. “I’m very happy with what Milito did, he did very well. We told him to push up, he worked for the team when we didn’t have possession. We’re trying to pressure the ball, but we had difficulties against their counterattacks. We’re trying to do this, but I keep saying the same things, we’ve not had much time, we’ll try to do more and keep going in this way. We knew they were fiery, it’s not easy. They had intensity, we had the ball, but these are things we’re working on.”
The champions got off to a great start after Milito faked to shoot and dragged the ball past Roberto Rosales — a carbon copy of the move he pulled on Bayern Munich’s Daniel Van Buyten when scoring in the final in May. Although Nikolai Mihajlov pushed out his left-footed 14th-minute shot, Sneijder arrived to drill home the rebound.
However, the hosts were level six minutes later when Janssen curled home a peach of a free-kick into the top corner from 22m that gave Julio Cesar no chance.
Twente were buoyed and Dwight Tiendalli had a crack from distance that Cesar had to push behind for a corner.
On 29 minutes, Janssen had another free-kick opportunity and went for the other side this time, but Cesar bounded across his line to tip it away for a corner. However, Janssen curled his left foot around the ball from the flag to dump it into the danger zone, where Milito inadvertently headed it past a helpless Cesar.
Inter went close to leveling on 36 minutes following a flowing move that saw Esteban Cambiasso feed Milito, who spread the ball wide to Eto’o to cross for Cambiasso, who had continued his run, but the Argentine hooked the ball onto the bar.
The Italians were level on 41 minutes, though, as Eto’o played a one-two with Goran Pandev and hit a crisp shot from distance that skimmed off the drenched surface and crept inside the right-hand post.
Back came Twente in first-half stoppage-time and Austrian Marc Janko headed narrowly over from Venezuelan Rosales’ pin-point cross.
The second half was low-key by comparison.
The first piece of action came halfway through the period after teenage Brazilian Coutinho had replaced the injured Pandev, but his shot hit countryman Douglas and flew away to safety.
That was the only chance of note, but the home fans were delighted with their point and gave their team a rousing reception on the whistle.
However, the game ended in controversy as TV replays showed Kenya midfielder McDonald Mariga head-butting Janssen just before the final whistle, sparking a brawl between Janssen and Eto’o.
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