UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL, SECOND LEG: Manchester United 4 Schalke 04 1:IF ANYONE was truly disappointed here it would have been the watching Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola, who saw almost nothing of the Manchester United team he will face in the Champions League final at Wembley on May 28th.
This was, eventually, a spree. Anderson scored two simple goals in the latter stages against a Schalke team who had an unflagging wish to make some impact on the occasion. Their attitude was good but the reality was that they could not dent even the unusual United line-up that they faced.
Nothing could deny Alex Ferguson a third Champions League final in four seasons.
United have exercised such authority in the tournament this season that they have denied themselves the acclaim they deserve. They are not only unbeaten in the competition but they have also conducted themselves in so steady a manner that the very thought of defeat has looked outlandish.
In that regard, then, the final will take United into a wholly different set of circumstances.
This match came virtually as a pause for relaxation.
Schalke came with a little pride but no real hope. It made no difference that this was so thoroughly altered a United line-up.
Those brought into the side, such as Darron Gibson, were rightly excited to be appearing in a Champions League semi-final, irrespective of the fact that the tie was, in effect, already settled.
The Bundesliga team might have preferred to be taking on a full-strength side that would in fact have been jaded.
As it was, United capered to a 2-0 lead early in the evening. At that juncture, it looked as if Schalke would be even more fragile than they had been at home, where they lost 2-0.
In the 26th minute Gibson released Antonio Valencia to score the opener. Five minutes later the much-admired Schalke goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, bungled as he spilled an effort by Gibson into his net, off a post.
Even so, Schalke had a purpose to their work before the interval that had been absent from the first leg. Rather than collapse, they cut the deficit almost immediately. The ball broke to Manuel Jurado and, while he was given far too much space by the United defence, the drive he sent high past Edwin van der Sar was still handsome. There was a trace of authenticity to the contest at such a moment.
The match was being taken seriously enough, too, for Gibson, Paul Scholes and Anderson all to be booked before the interval. Still, it was impossible to forget that nothing would actually rest on the result of this match, unless Schalke were to go on what was a virtually unfeasible rampage.
Some will deem Ferguson’s team to have been lucky in the draw, since their opponents have been feeble.
Inadequacy was, for instance, the most obvious characteristic of Schalke in the first leg. It must be a rarity for a manager to turn the home leg of a Champions League semi-final into a rest day for some footballers who will be indispensable as United try to clinch the Premier League in the next week or two.
For this fixture, only Van der Sar and Valencia were retained from the starting line-up for the first leg.
Schalke came to this match with just a single realistic ambition. In theory, there was just enough time left to dispel the impression that they were semi-finalists by accident. They at least had to try to give some idea of how they had drubbed the holders, Internazionale, in the quarter-finals. Schalke had achieved that ambition in the first 45 minutes, but United still knew that the occasion represented a healthy pause for the footballers who will resume service when Chelsea come here in the Premier League on Sunday.
Patronising as it may be to say it about opponents who are not remotely equipped to deal with Ferguson’s players, there was a creditable endeavour to Schalke, who wanted to leave Old Trafford with a sense of increased pride. They were most likely to have been egged on, too, by a feeling of annoyance that United, accurately enough, did not think them worth the time of the better players on their books.
United’s lead might have been extended but Neuer, well into a recovery from his first-half lapse, did well to stretch and tip away a drive from Anderson in the 55th minute. There was an appealing tone to Schalke, who yearned to impress in this match for its own sake. The priority was still to contain United and they set about it with purpose, if only to make this evening tolerable.
United, with a first-team regular such as Patrice Evra being sent on, also sought to sustain the authenticity that even a semi-final of this nature merits. Schalke’s commitment did not flag either, but that was always a triumph of pride over realism.
* Guardian Service
MAN UTD:Van der Sar, Rafael Da Silva (Evra 60), Smalling, Evans, O'Shea, Gibson, Scholes (Fletcher 73), Anderson, Valencia, Berbatov (Owen 77), Nani. Subs Not Used:Kuszczak, Giggs, Hernandez, Vidic. Booked: Gibson, Scholes, Anderson.
SCHALKE 04:Neuer, Uchida, Howedes (Huntelaar 69), Metzelder, Escudero, Papadopoulos, Jurado, Farfan (Matip 75), Baumjohann (Edu 46), Draxler, Raul. Subs Not Used:Schober, Sarpei, Schmitz, Karimi. Booked: Escudero.
Referee:Pedro Proenca (Portugal).
