Villarreal And Manchester United In Another Stalemate As Both Qualify

With both these sides well out in front in group E, all the talk surrounding this encounter was whether they may be content to see the contest out to a stalemate and confirm the point necessary to confirm qualification for both.

Pellegrini fielded a reasonably strong outfit, opting to use Rossi as a lone frontman and employ Pires and Cazorla to furrow for opportunities around him. United meanwhile were missing Berbatov, Vidic and Van Der Sar but such is their strength in depth The Villarreal defence had to face the prodigious talent of messrs Rooney and Ronaldo.

Despite the attacking talent of show, there was precious little attacking play at either end of the pitch. Rooney had a goal wrongly disallowed within the first five minutes, while Santi Cazorla stung the hands of stand-in goalkeeper Kuszczak with a right-foot strike from the edge of the area.  But truthfully, that was the summation of the goalmouth action as the match meandered as aimlessly as the efforts on target.

While the passing play in the middle of the pitch was pretty and patient, given the circumstances, there was precious little substance to match the undoubtedly stylish patterns of play.

Both sides are extremely adept at withholding possession, biding their time before striking with a defence-splitting pass. Make no mistake – these are two supremely well-drilled outfits, who give little away, and one nullified the other to such an extent that there was barely a shot of note in the opening forty minutes.

As half-time beckoned, Ronaldo took it upon himself to inject some interest into this desperately dull encounter. He strode onto a Rooney lay-off at the edge of the box and unleashed a wonderful drive towards goal. Diego Lopez however was equal to it and pushed the ball onto the underside of the bar. It was far and away the most exciting altercation of the match to this point.

The Portuguese then skipped a long-range free-kick towards the corner but this one was far easier to deal with for the impressive Spanish stopper, and he turned it behind comfortably behind.

But that flurry of action from the Ballon D’Or-elect aside, it was a half distinctly lacking in a competitive edge. Yes, even the premier football competition in the world can produce halves of football as poor as this.

Fortunately for those in attendance the game opened up slightly, and Man United appeared to stake a claim for top spot in the section. Fletcher dragged a shot just wide before Rooney powered a volley on the turn that Diego Lopez beat away to safety.

At the other end, Cazorla whipped in a tantalising cross that agonisingly evaded both Rossi and Capdevilla. While not exactly Earth-shattering, it was still a marked improvement on the first period.

The closest we came to a goal in the closing stages was when a Rooney cross was headed out from underneath his own crossbar by Capdevila.

But the same player blotted his copybook by being red-carded moments later for a knee-high challenge on Ronaldo, the winger was on the sprint. There was a clear element of intent in the tackle, and it was a nasty incident in what proved overall to be an unpleasant spectacle.

In the end, the cynics were right. Manchester Untied and Villarreal progress, without really breaking sweat.

LINE-UPS:

Villarreal: Diego Lopez, Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Eguren, Capdevila; Fuentes, Senna (Bruno 45’), Ibagaza, Pires (Mati Fernandez 65’), Cazorla; Rossi (Franco 77’)

Manchester United: Kuszczak, O’Shea, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra; Nani (Park Ji Sung 84’), Anderson, Carrick (Tevez 85’), Fletcher (Gibson 80’); Ronaldo, Rooney

Paul Macdonald