Europe in retrospect

ArmchairCritic

Whilst I was brushing my teeth this morning I was thinking about the times where Europe just seemed to get away from us. 2006-07 rankles me, we had defensive injuries that hurt us big time, IIRC Rio and Vidic didn't play that first leg against Milan and Kaka ran riot. We got to the FA Cup final that year too but looked jaded as fuck.

2003-04 was the year of Scholes' disallowed goal against Porto but that one doesn't rankle me as much. I think was it 2002 when we lost to Leverkusen, that midfield was far too good on paper, lacked a CB mind and who knows what would have happened in the Final against Madrid. It would have been nice for SAF to go to Hampden Park though. It's always annoyed me that we've never won a Champions League final in the 90 mins too.

Any other regrets in Europe?

Jimy_Hills_Chin

Milan were named on Fuentes leaked doping list. My regret is that there have not been blood passports in European football for the past 15 years.

ArmchairCritic

Backline of:

O'Shea, Brown, Heinze, Evra.

Against prime Kaka

Striker10

There are so many moments in the 90's especially where we recieved one kick in the bollcks after another. I remember us battering Dortmund one year and going out, I think leverkusen when Forlan had an effort cleared off the line near the end I think - Obviously that Scholes goal vs Porto..

To many, even that year when we beat Real Madrid at Ot - we didn't turn up in the first leg. I bloody well hope we do tonight...

Jimy_Hills_Chin

I think that Milan finished 5th in their league that year. We should have fucked them. That is a rather inglorious back four by United standards though.

Solius

I want to hear more about this teeth brushing.

JayWalker

Oh, this was just cruel to watch.

Solius

Losing to Bayern on away goals in 2010 still annoys me. Especially after how amazingly we started that game.

MrMojo

2006 I agree with, we were excellent until the injuries took hold.

In all the other near misses I feel we brought it on ourselves by having a dodgy back line. For too long we messed about with defenders who were mistake prone and/or just not good enough. Blanc, Silvestre, Brown, Bathez etc. Makes me shudder now.

ArmchairCritic

2nd Leg I think Vidic had just comeback from a dislocated shoulder and Rio was still injured. Rio and Vidic fully fit over two legs would have made it a different ball game.

kps88

Fair to say our time in Europe under SAF has been filled with regrets. So many games we were capable of winning but just didn't perform/get any luck.

ArmchairCritic

Oh god yeah, that first 45 was as good as we've ever seen from Nani and Valencia being in the same team, never seen it since. Our flanks were lethal.

KM

Typical Germans.

Annoying how Rafael was red carded after being excellent for first half.

Solius

We would have faced Lyon in the semis too so I think we'd have at least been in another final had Robben not come up with that goal.

Cina

Yeah, the Bayern game annoyed me for so many reasons.

Pexbo

This is the one that bothers me more than anything. I really felt like we were going through in that game. Robbens goal hurt like fuck.

Solius

Nani's second goal was immense. That little backheel flick. Unfortunately forgotten due to the result. Poor guy gets a few goals overshadowed, like his one against City that Rooney overhead-kicked out of the spotlight.

Annihilate Now!

Same here. I bet he's an Oral B type of guy.

Biggest regrets are Dortmund in 97, and Bayern in 2010... we should have won both of those tournaments.

ArmchairCritic

And if Carrick wasn't such a pussy on that Olic goal before HT. We'd have had Lyon and I'd fancy us against Mourinho's Inter as good as they were.

Solius

Olic and his melted Daniel Craig face annoyed the fuck out of me.

MrMojo

Great goals and a sending off happen though, not much you can do about it. Not signing a top centre half at the end of '99 though was the big mistake that blighted our European campaigns for years to come.

ArmchairCritic

If you think about it our run from 07-11 should have been far more glorious than it was:

07-We lost to Milan in the Semi's after defensive injuries (quelle surprise!)
08-Won it
09-Barcelona, if Hargreaves was alive and Fletcher didn't get banned who knows?
10-Ruddy Bayern
11-Barcelona, no chance in this one with our midfield to be honest.

I think we use up about 10 years of luck every time we win a final.

ArmchairCritic

You bet correctly!

Jimy_Hills_Chin

What about Jose's Porto? Bogus offside ruling denied us an easy path to the final.

Sarni

2010 was depressing. We had them on the ropes after 40 minutes, then Carrick had a brain fart and let Olic score a goal that gave Bayern hope. It was all Bayern in the second half, even more so after Rafael's red card and it was inevitable that they were going to score at some point. We also lost that first leg after two late goals, one was the last kick of the game.

Thisistheone

The thing with that Bayern tie in 2010 was also Rooney. We were flying (both domestically and in Europe) until he got injured in the 1st leg. 1-0 up away from home then a shit Ribery free kick and an Evra fuck up.

So annoying.

Dortmund in '97 was the most painful one before that.

ArmchairCritic

Oh yeah but I just wanted to outline that 5 year run, it could have been fucking glorious. In my mind we could have done it back-to-back in 07 and 08.

Annihilate Now!

Fuck yeah.

I know my teethbrushers when I see them...

I forgot about that... probably due to succesfully managing to purge it from my memory. We definitely should have won that Champions League.

Cling Bak

2007 would've been Liverpool in the final. I believe we were good enough that year, injuries cost us more than anything else.

1997 and 2002 both mentioned, semi-final heartbreak to Germans.

Nobody has mentioned either of the 2009 and 2011 finals! Clearly people think the opposition were too much, but in terms of where we got to, they're the closest apart from winning it. I'd like to have seen how we'd have done if Park had buried that rebound to Ronaldo's early free kick in 2009. But I think Fergie got the team a bit wrong that year anyway (we were robbed of Fletcher though which was unjust).

Cling Bak

We weren't that good in 2004, though. But I agree about the potential route there. It's just that Porto weren't rated highly that year (seen as a good draw for us at the time), so had it not been them it might have been someone else causing an upset on us. There was a long way to go.

KM

I don't seem to remember Bayern having too many clear cut chances. Robben's goal was sensational.

Nani was amazing. I remember he played as a centre forward In the second half and was still amazing.

Cina

We were definitely the better team yet somehow lost. Almost felt like revenge for 99.

AldoRaine18

02-03. We had a good team, were doing well in the league and the final was at OT. That season could have been really special.

Striker10

Dunno why we didn't just play Tevez in that final as he was coming into form and scoring but both finals against Barcelona are irritiating. We just fell into the hype

ArmchairCritic

2009 wasn't that bad the game just got away from us, 2011 there was a definite gulf.

KM

Btw does anyone remember Kaka's second goal against us at OT. Evra booted Heinze out of the way!

That second leg at San Siro was painful though. Seedorf murdered us.

ArmchairCritic

Fit Rio and Vidic and for me neither of those Kaka goals are happening at OT, Heinze was only half a yard off him for the first. OT was willing the ball into the net at times it seemed during that run.

Sarni

I remember them having the ball nearly the entire time, it looked like it was only a matter of time before they score.

charlenefan

2002 against Leverkusen was hard to take looking back, but we'd of probably lost to Real in the final anyway

2003 against Real was hard to take given we'd already beaten Juve twice who knocked out Real in the next leg

2004 against Porto was hard to take looking at the teams that were left in after that knock out round

For me though the thing that rankles the most is Fergie breaking up the 2003 side when he did, with Beckham, Veron and RVN continuing on from the previous campaign I think we could of won it with that side

Solius

Have.