I watched the game again right now, without the great tension
Manchester came here to defend and counter-attack. They had at least 8 players behind the ball at anytime. If they played like this in serie a, they couldnt do shit because the ref's criteria is soooo much different. They were protected like fucking polar-bears. 90% of their chances came from running into our defenders/midfielders and diving!!
Meanwhile, our play was tormented with unnecessary technical mistakes like passes behind the player, Muntari's inability to stop the ball, letting them steal the ball from behind, Rivas ''defending'', Adriano's shooting... I think our players aren't technically inferior, but it's a lack of confidence. We went into the game too scared and we progressed during the game, when we shook off the pressure and gained some confidence. This was very obvious in the start of the sceond half, when Cordoba entered and gave the whole team more confidence because they couldn't attack too much due to Rivas horror-show.
I really hope we can start the return match where we finished this one. They won't want to risk going to over-time or even penalties, so they will have to attack us, leaving spaces for counters. I hope Fergie will put Rooney in instead of Park, because he did so much work in their midfield, they won't be able to compensate. With the return of Samuel, I think we'll be able to soak the pressure and attack them from wings or with long balls.
Anyways I'm overthinking this one
FORZA INTER