FA Community Shield Man Utd Vs Chelsea
FA Community Shield, Sunday 5th August 2007 - Kick off 3.00 pm
Venue - Wembley Stadium
Manchester United V Chelsea
The traditional start to the season, the Community shield, took place this afternoon with Champions Manchester United stong favourites as Chelsea were struggling with major injury problems to the point they had to draft in youth players to the bench.
United manager Alex Ferguson has described this United squad as the best he has ever had, they certainly started the stronger of the two sides with Chelsea's depleted side offering little up front for most of the first half.
Ronaldo and Rooney both had chances for United, but it was another United hero who would open the scoring. After a deflected free kick from Ronaldo came to nothing, Patrice Evra set up a smart one two, he then pulled the ball back from the touchline for Ryan Giggs to guide the ball home with a wonderful finish, as he had little to aim at. This gave United a dserved lead
GOAL - 34 Minutes - Giggs - Manchester United 1 Chelsea 0
After this Chelsea got a degree more possession and hit back just before the break. A long ball over the top caught Ferdinand out of position, and Malouda ran on with it, brushing aside Ferdinand and moving into the penalty area. From a tough angle he smartly put the ball past Van Der Sar for an equaliser they had scarcely deserved.
GOAL - 44 Minutes - Malouda - Manchester United 1 Chelsea 1
There was little time left and they went in all square after at the break. The second half began pretty much the same way. Chelsea were trying long balls over the top towards Wright Phillips while united were playing the better football. Chech made a fine save from Ronaldo on 55 minutes. From there the game began to peter out towards a penalty shoot out.
Neither side looked like winning it in the last 20 minutes as substitution came and tiredness at this early point of the season began to hit. The game ended a draw accoridngly and after a short break we moved to penalities, both managers seemed pleased with what they had seen over the ninety minutes.
In the shoot out United keeper Van Der Sar was the hero saving all three Chelsea penalties. It was left to Wayne Rooney to score the winning penalty and seal the first bit of silverware for United. Overall they deserved to win the game, but given Chelsea's injury problems they will be pleased to have gone 90 minutes and come away with an equal scoreline.
RESULT
FA COMMUNITY SHIELD FROM WEMBLEY
Manchester United (1) 1 (Giggs 34)
Chelsea (1) 1 (Malouda 44)
Manchester United win 3-0 on pens
Manchester United win the 2007 Community Shield
