Sunderland (A) – Saturday 11th April, 3pm

Portsmouth (H) – Wednesday 22nd April, 8pm

Tottenham (H) – Saturday 25th April, 5pm

Middlesborough (A) – Saturday 2nd May, 3pm

Manchester City (H) – Saturday 9th May, 3pm*

Wigan Athletic (A) – Wednesday 13th May, 8pm

Arsenal (H) – Saturday 16th May, 3pm*

Hull City (A) – Sunday 24th May, 4pm

There’s certainly lots to talk about – 2 consecutive losses for the first time in 147 games…what is all that about?! Having just got over the misery of losing to the Scouse scum at Old Trafford, most expected United to come roaring back from their defeat, as they’ve done countless times under Fergie over the the years. But let’s not dwell on that – that’s all in the past.

We must look ahead to our clash against Villa in 9 days’ time at OT. Villa have had a superb season, despite their season catching up with them in the last few matches (they’ve lost their last 3), and so won’t be a walkover. The boys will have had 2 weeks since the Fulham upset as well, and this should be a healthy break for United – to re-group, get their act together and prepare for the crucial 9 remaining games of the season. Yes, we may have Scholes, Rooney & Vidic out for the Villa clash, but we’re the Champions after all; we’re United – losing just isn’t in our nature. Save the last 2 games, our defence has been awesome, and our attack the most feared in the Premiership.

The worrying thing is that the last couple of games has somewhat weakened our “invinicble” status, and so other times may feel a little more confident against us. But this shouldn’t make a huge difference. What we need is a good solid game against Villa = an early goal would be brilliant.

Interestingly, Liverpool play Fulham away the Saturday before; let’s hope Roy Hodgson and his men can pull off something against them. Of course, Liverpool also have the chance to go ahead of us, as they play on Saturday, whilst we meet Villa on Sunday.

Fingers crossed, there won’t be any major injuries sustained in the coming Internationals, and the United boys will come back rejuvenated on Sunday, and push into 5th gear against Villa from the word go.

We’re still a point ahead,  we’re still in all 3 competitions, and there’s still a game in hand (Portsmouth), so let’s dust ourselves off, hold our heads up high, and remind the rest of the League exactly who we are and what we’re made of.

A win against Villa will not only get us back on track in the League, but will up our confidence for the crucial FA Cup & Champions League games – we play Porta at OT just 2 days after the Villa tie.

Bring it on!

1999: Manchester United 2 – 1 Bayern Munich; 2 United goals in injury-time.

2008: Manchester United 1 (6) – 1 (5) Chelsea; United win on penalties, in one of the most thrilling finals ever.

3 dramatic finals. 3 European titles. Long live United.

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The manager

Sir Alex Ferguson: “The satisfaction of winning it is fantastic. I’ve said before we should have won it more times and three wins has a far better ring to it. Hopefully we can build on that.”

“Defending the European Cup is not an easy thing to do but I think the team is good enough. They will improve next year.”

The players

Rio Ferdinand: “This is a great feeling to be victorious, but this is a bunch of players that are going to do it again. We’re not going to rest on our laurels. We’ll enjoy this moment. But we’ll be thinking about next season in the not-too-distant future because we want to be successful and the players are hungry for more success.”

Nemanja Vidic: “When you pick up the trophy and you celebrate with your team-mates and the fans it makes you want to do it all over again because the feeling is so good. It’s something I’ll always remember and I hope I get to experience it again.”

Cristiano Ronaldo: “We showed this season that we are the best team in Europe and in England and it’s a great feeling. Next season we will try to do the same. I feel very proud. It means everything to me – it is the happiest day of my life.”

Wayne Rooney: “I hope we can win it again. Doing it this year has given us a taste for it and we want to do well again next season. We’ve got some great young players in the squad mixed with experience, so hopefully we can do well again.”

Owen Hargreaves: “I’m not going to reflect on anything. It’s fabulous to get a reward for all the hard work you put in during the season, but for me that’s in the past and I’m looking to next season. I’m looking forward to improving on things I did wrong this season, we’ll sign some new players and keep improving. That’s my goal, I can look back when I’m finished football, but now’s not the time. I’m excited about next season already.”

Ryan Giggs: “I want nights like this again.”

The fans

“We want more, we want more, we want more!”

With such a quality-filled, youthful, hungry squad – with the likes of Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, Carrick, Nani, Anderson to name just a few – this Manchester United squad aren’t going to settle for what they’ve got, that’s for sure. And with a couple of extra Summer signings, the team will only get stronger.

Doesn’t it feel great to be a United fan right now?!

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Full match report below

Manchester United are Champions of Europe once again, after a dramatic win on penalties against rivals Chelsea. With the sides locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes and neither being able to break the deadlock during extra time, United went on to win 6-5 in the shoot-out.

In the vastly anticipated so-called “Game of Games”, it started as was expected, with both sides nervy and staying tight, giving no real flow to the game. But soon the Reds managed to enjoy some possession and string some passes together, with Owen Hargreaves seeing much of the ball on the right, and sending in a couple of good crosses.

The Reds broke the deadlock in the 26th minute, when a throw-in deep in Chelsea’s on the right side saw a neat exchange between Scholes and Brown, and Brown’s inviting cross picked out Ronaldo, who rose up and directed the ball brilliantly past a motionless Cech into the corner of the net. This goal was Ronaldo’s marked Ronaldo’s first against Chelsea, and was a perfect response to speculation that he doesn’t perform so well in “big games” – some pundits should well be choking on their words.

But, more importantly, United had got just what they wanted – the first goal and in the first half. After this, the midfield area noticably opened up, with Chelsea now searching for an equaliser. And the Reds had two great chances to go 2-0 up, both falling to Carlos Tevez; first, United broke forward from a Chelsea corner in their own half, with Rooney delivering a superb ball across the field to Ronaldo, who planted a fantastic cross onto Tevez’s head – but Cech was equal to the Argentine’s diving effort, pulling off a fantastic save and then parrying Carrick’s follow-up effort from the edge of the area, completing a brilliant double-save.

And just a couple of minutes before the break, Rooney again did well to hold up the ball on the right flank, and fizzed an inviting ball across the Chelsea goal, which the outstretched boot of Tevez could only graze – so close for United.

But right on the stroke of half-time, Essien found some space and took a shot, which ricocheted off both Vidic and Ferdinand, and Lampard was quick to pounce and cooly lifted the ball past Van der Sar, who was caught wrongfooted from the original Essien shot. Chelsea’s undeserved equaliser had brought them completely back into the game, and would certainly make for an exciting second half.

Lifted by their goal, Chelsea began to take control after the break and the United backline had to be fully alert; the ever-trustworthy Vidic and Ferdinand headed away a series of Chelsea crosses. Carrick also did well to hook away a Malouda freekick, one of a number of freekick opportunities Chelsea received throughout the match.

And then a moment when Red hearts skipped a beat – a turn from Drogba and an arcing shot against the United post, with van der Sar beaten. That was close. The Chelsea frontman then drilled Joe Cole’s low ball across goal wide.

Ryan Giggs came on just before extra time, to mark his 759th appearance from the club and breaking Sir Bobby’s record – with the United veteran watching and and applauding his entry. And he nearly scored, after a fantastic burst into the box by Evra who then passes into the area, with Giggs’ poke brilliantly anticipated by Terry, who superbly flicked the ball over the bar with his head.

Another heartstopping moment for the Reds came in the first half of extra time, when some neat passing from Chelsea saw Lampard with the ball in the area, and his shot on the turn came off the underside of the bar – the second time the Blues had struck the woodwork.

In the second half there were explosive scenes when Tevez kicked the ball off to give the Blues a throw-on, after Joe Cole had gone down and Chelsea had kicked the ball out so he could receive some attention. Chelsea appeared to be angry at the fact that Tevez had played the ball out, rather than returning it to them directly; in fact, the Blues had twice done the same to United earlier in the match. Words were exchanged between Drogba and Vidic, and the Blues man was rightly sent off, after a slap on the Serb.

With penalties an almost dead cert, Chelsea brought on Belletti and the Reds brought on Anderson just before the end of the second period of extra time. And so the first ever all-English CL final was to be decided on penalties.

And, as always, it was a nervy shootout indeed. Tevez and Carrick helped ease nerves by scoring the first two, but the United fans behind the goal were stunned into silence as Ronaldo missed the third; his usual pause before the spotkick, this time a markedly long one, didn’t fool Cech, who saved to his right.

Hargreaves and the young Nani put pressure aside and brought the score to 4-4, with Chelsea scoring all of there’s up to that point, and the Blues’ talisman Terry stepped up to the pressure to win his side their first ever European title…but, unbelievably (or perhaps not so, with the questionable condition of the pitch), he slipped at the critical moment, and the ball struck the outside of the post, with the United goalie diving the wrong way.

YES! What a moment! United fans could hardly believe their luck…was it in their fate, 50 years on from the Munich Air Disaster, to go on and win it?

Anderson stepped up for the first spotkick of sudden death, and blasted the ball into the net to give him his first United goal, with Kalou slotting past van der Sar in reply. And then came Ryan Giggs, slotted into Cech’s bottom left corner and sending the Chelsea goalie the wrong way. Nicolas Anelka then stepped forward from the halfway line, placed the ball on the spot…referee blows his whistle…and saved by van der Sar to his left!

Manchester United had done it! The Dutch goalkeeper threw his hands into the air, whilst the United players sprinted towards him. Ecstacy followed thereafter – the Reds had done it again, and the scenes of 1999 were renewed.

For the third time in their history, Manchester United were Champions of Europe – what a history, what a win, and what a season.

Does this feel better than 1999? And how good are our chances of defending our European title next season?

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Watch at around 12-14 seconds into the clip…not nice!

What goes around comes around, John…

What do you think? Should action be taken against John Terry?

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Could watch this ALL day long.

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Lampard goal (45): 1-1

First half highlights

Penalty shoot-out: 6-5

—————–

Trophy celebration

Giggs’ post-match interview

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Sir Alex has taken a squad of 24 players with him, and says he has picked a starting lineup, but picking the substitutes has proven to be difficult:

“I know my team, but picking the substitutes is the big problem. I’m not going to enjoy it, there will be some very good players left out.

I hope one day they extend the substitutes’ bench to 11 players as they do in World Cup games. The dilemma should be taken from me.”

Ferguson certainly has a point, being faced with the difficult task of choosing 7 subsitutes from a possible 13; having so many players to pick has its disadvantages too, it would appear.

Meanwhile for Chelsea, worries over John Terry and Didier Drogba have eased and the pair are likely to play, meaning both sides have fully-fit squads ahead of the final.

But United’s more youthful squad will have the experience of Ferguson, who’s already been through a European final, of course.

Travelling United squad:

Goalkeepers: Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Heaton

Defenders: Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Brown, Neville, O’Shea, Silvestre, Pique

Midfielders: Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Hargreaves, Anderson, Fletcher, Park, Nani

Forwards: Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Saha, Wellbeck

This statement confirms what many already suspected, and will come as pleasing to United fans, who feel that one of the few weaknesses within the side is the lack of a centre-forward; it has become apparent that the seemingly temperamental Louis Saha needs to be replaced with a stronger signing.

Klass-Jan Huntelaar (Ajax), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham) and Michael Owen (Newcastle) have all been amongst the speculation, but the player being increasingly mentioned is Seville’s Luis Fabiano. The 27-year old Brazilian has an impressive 34 goals to his name this season, in just 44 appearances for his club. He also topped the La Liga top scorer list this season with 18 goals, beating Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o and United’s former goal-machine Ruud van Nistelrooy.

United have been scouting Fabiano extensively over the last few weeks, and reported back to Ferguson with their findings. Whether or not United make a move appears to rest heavily on whether or not they can agree a reasonable deal for the player; Fabiano and his representatives remain convinced that he can bought for a sum in the region of £8.6 million – which certainly sounds very reasonable – but his club, Seville, claim that he is valued at a staggering £48.6 million, as it is put in his contract. It would certainly appear that the latter sum would be out of the question for the striker, though the former is probably a more realistic sum.

Other interests include Huntelaar, who has bagged an impressive 60 goals in 74 appearances at Ajax’s Amsterdam ArenA. He also has an impressive European record, with 9 goals in 9 appearances (Champions League and UEFA Cup). The 24-year old is valued at around £13 million, and some reports indicate Ferguson may make a bid of around £16 million.

Dimitar Bervatov is another possiblity, thought Ferguson is – rightly -concerned about the Bulgarian’s sometimes lazy approach, and ability to perform against top-class opponents. Many believe the Bulgarian is not right for the youthful and hungry United.

Kasim Benzema is another top class striker, though he has recenty claimed he is staying put at Lyon. Finally, Michael Owen is, perhaps, a somewhat surprising target and would surely not be the preferred choice for Ferguson, if he is a target at all.

With Ferguson being assured that he will have the finance to strengthen his squad even more this Summer, the second priority is a right-back defender; though Wes Brown has significantly improved his game and performed well for United this season, Gary Neville’s future remains up in the air – he did not make a single league appearance this season – and Gerard Pique looks to be heading to Barcelona.

The two key targets for this position look to be Bayern Munich’s Philipp Lahm and Micah Richards of rivals Manchester City. Whether Man City would let the 19-year old make a move across Manchester to their bitter rivals is a different question entirely. The highly-rated Daniel Alves, from Fabiano’s Seville, has also been linked, though his price-tag is most probably too high to be United’s top choice.

Other interests include Wigan’s Wilson Palacios and Luis Antonio Valencia, and Sporting Lisbon’s Miguel Veloso.

The thought of some of these world-class

So who will we see in United shirts at Old Trafford next year?