For the second time this season, United surrendered a winning position as Benfica snatched a 2-2 draw to go top of Group C and leave their hopes in the balance. They must now avoid defeat in their final group match at FC Basel to be sure of qualifying for the knockout rounds, where they are now likely to meet Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan or Bayern Munich.
Nevertheless Ferguson is relaxed about the prospect of meeting one of the tournament favourites early on in the knockouts.
“Finishing second makes it harder but if you look at it in a different way, maybe the bigger game will suit us,” he said. “The opportunities are Inter, Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. You have to judge that in this way – that if you played them in a semi-final or a final you’d be only too delighted, knowing that you have the possibility to win. And the clubs we’ll face know that too.”
Ferguson knows, however, that his side will have to rediscover their knack of closing out matches if they are to progress further. After conceding an early Phil Jones own goal, United fought back to take a 2-1 lead after strikes from Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Fletcher. But their celebrations subsided when Benfica grabbed an equaliser a few minutes later courtesy Pablo Aimar.
“The biggest problem was it happened so quickly after our second goal that it took the wind right out of our sails,” said Ferguson.
Mancini puts qualification hopes at 30%
Elsewhere, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini put his team’s chances of progressing to the knockout rounds at just 30 per cent following their 2-1 defeat at Napoli.
Edinson Cavani scored a brace for the hosts and Mario Balotelli replied for City but their European destiny is now out of their hands. City must beat Bayern Munich, who have already won the group by defeating Villareal 3-1, to have any chance of going through. However, if Napoli win against Villarreal, they will definitely be into the last-16.
“I think Napoli have a 70 per cent chance and we have a 30 per cent chance,” said Mancini. “It’s not down to us and that’s the problem. Our target was to go through to the second stage but now it depends on another team.”
Real run riot
Meanwhile, Real Madrid made light work of Dinamo Zagreb winning 6-2 to make it five straight wins.
“Normally in games like this the players are relaxed, but we treated it like a final,” said Real coach Jose Mourinho.
In other action, Group B saw Inter Milan guaranteed top spot after drawing 1-1 with Trabzonspor.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2011.
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Edison Cavani was moving very very Fast in this match and scoring two great goals... I saw it on a Youtube Video... Great Match.