ManUtd 5 - 2 CONCORD (365857868)

54051 fans braved the pouring rain at Old Trafford. Ruyman Domínguez was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Fran Villabedón and Tomas Lewgård. A 2-5-3 alignment was the formation of choice for ManUtd. The following players took the field: Johansson - Barabanov, Râlea - Lovach, Chadikoski, Idrizi, Steigerwald, Nyland - Waszczuk, Boesze, Fredriksson.

CONCORD started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Halay - van den Brakel, Sérot, Ambrogetti - Proevski, Dias Graça, Bresliev, Fernández Folguera, Mulder - Trajanov, Amador.

The guests took the lead 19 minutes into the match, after a right-side attack resulted in T. Trajanov scoring to make it 0 - 1. 26 minutes in, CONCORD's D. Ambrogetti received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Some fine passing in the middle of the pitch, carving open the away defence, should have led to a goal for ManUtd, but D. Steigerwald's shot went over the bar. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave F. Waszczuk from ManUtd a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 30 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! ManUtd put pressure on the visitors' central defence 32 minutes into the game, but D. Boesze couldn't find an opening. S. Nyland of ManUtd seemed to be floating in the air as he elegantly headed in to make the score 1 - 1 after a corner kick that was nicely executed by L. Fredriksson. Halftime score was 1 - 1. ManUtd had most of the ball, with 59 percent of possession.

L. Fredriksson had a hard time on the waterlogged pitch - his trademark technique was nowhere in sight today. ManUtd took the lead after 58 minutes as a result of F. Waszczuk's peach of a shot from the right hand side of the box - placed beautifully in the top corner. 2 - 1. After 59 minutes, a couple of quick and successful challenges followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area by D. Boesze might have resulted in another goal for ManUtd. However, A. Halay made a spectacular save. Content with how the game was proceeding, the ManUtd coach let J. Meckelfeld replace D. Boesze after 60 minutes. The visitors didn't give in and, after 60 minutes, T. Mulder got through the home side's central line of defence, rolling in the equaliser to make it 2 - 2. L. Fredriksson caused the crowd to go mental with his goal up the middle after 61 minutes. This gave ManUtd the 3 - 2 lead. The referee showed ManUtd's L. Fredriksson the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. A magnificent combination in the middle resulted in ManUtd's D. Steigerwald increasing the lead to 4 - 2. After 75 minutes, the away team failed to deal with a good exchange of passes on the right, and D. Steigerwald gave the ManUtd supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 5 - 2. L. Chadikoski should probably have put his team up another goal after 76 minutes, but some great goalkeeping by A. Halay kept the visitors in the game. ManUtd claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 62 percent.

ManUtd's top performer was clearly L. Fredriksson. J. Johansson turned in a dismal performance, however. R. Amador performed admirably for CONCORD. T. Mulder on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 5 - 2.