Manchester United 3 - Portsmouth 0 - Report
By David Hobbs
November 1 2003
Manchester United comfortably strolled to a 3-0 victory against Premiership new-boys Portsmouth to keep the pressure on Arsenal and Chelsea. Tim Howard, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy all returned to the starting line-up and Roy Keane was left on the bench for the Red Devils.
| Manchester United 3 - Portsmouth 0 - Report |
Manchester United comfortably strolled to a 3-0 victory against Premiership new-boys Portsmouth to keep the pressure on Arsenal and Chelsea. Tim Howard, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy all returned to the starting line-up and Roy Keane was left on the bench for the Red Devils. Harry Redknapps's Pompey enjoyed most of the possession in the early stages and Yakubu and Patrick Berger both fired shots from long distance wide of Tim Howard's goal. The champions weren't creative enough and were failing to get the ball up field and Pompey took advantage of that. Rio Ferdinand gave the ball away by the corner flag and Tim Howard saved Yakubu's effort. United were improved as the game went on and Dutch master-class Ruud van Nistelrooy turned like ballerina and struck a fantastic volley which rattled the bar. 5 minutes later van Nistelrooy was clear on goal and blasted the ball into row Z. Moments later Diego Forlan, who is on sensational form, broke the dead-lock for United after Gary Neville's cross was headed down to Forlan by Giggs and the Uruguayan was on hand to blast the ball home. 1-0 United.
Half-Time: Manchester United 1 - Portsmouth 0
Pompey came out all fired up after the interval and Yakubu set up Berger who fired the ball over the bar. Just after the hour mark, Darren Fletcher tried to chip Hislop and the ball found Nicky Butt who should have scored but headed wide. Sir Alex Ferguson then brought on Cristiano Ronaldo and Roy Keane with 15 minutes left to kill the game off and it certainly worked. United were then award a free kick and Portuguese teenager Ronaldo stepped up to take it and he scored his first goal for United from a David Beckham style free-kick. Roy Keane then scored his 49th goal for Manchester United when he connected with a Ronaldo free-kick and that sealed the win for United. Full Time- Manchester United 3 - Portsmouth 0
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Line-Ups |
|
Manchester United: Howard, Gary Neville,
O'Shea, Ferdinand, Fortune, Fletcher, Butt, Djemba-Djemba, Giggs, Forlan,
van Nistelrooy. Subs: Carroll, Phil Neville, Ronaldo, Bellion, Keane.
Portsmouth: Hislop, Stefanovic, De Zeeuw, Foxe, Zivkovic, Stone, Quashie, Sherwood, Berger, Ayegbini, Sheringham. Subs: Wapenaar, Schemmel, Taylor, Roberts, O'Neil |
| ManUtdWeb Man of the Match - Ryan Giggs |
| A truly amazing performance from the
Welsh-Wizard on his 350th appearance for United.
He made Pompey's defence feel like they were in hell. A great performance all round. |
