Which game broke you the most?

Red the Bear said:
Well at least you lot managed to hand the title to city i suppose.
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To be honest given that Utd had an 8 point lead with 6 games left, missing out on the title that season was entirely their own doing.

Of course Fergie got way more right than wrong at Utd (or during his entire managerial career), but going to the Etihad, showing pretty much zero attacking ambition, and visibly playing for a draw was definitely a mistake. The previous game against Everton was just unlucky though with some poor defending as well.
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
To be honest given that Utd had an 8 point lead with 6 games left, missing out on the title that season was entirely their own doing.

Of course Fergie got way more right than wrong at Utd (or during his entire managerial career), but going to the Etihad, showing pretty much zero attacking ambition, and visibly playing for a draw was definitely a mistake. The previous game against Everton was just unlucky though with some poor defending as well.
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That season was very terrible and Fergie had become noticeably pessimistic in his approach to big games and too cynical.
Thankfully he rectified that mistake in our last title winning campaign .
I guess you could say both of our downfalls started in the same year, at least we had a last hurray the following season.
 
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THAT Everton game. Leaves a deep wound. I can still remember Steven Pienaar scoring that equalizer like it was yesterday. That feeling when your stomach drops, I still get it now thinking about it.

I hope Everton get relegated.
 
13/5/2006: FC Basel v FC Zürich

I was 9 years old and it was one of the first matches I remember going as a kid. It was the last game of the season and we needed a point to win the title. In the last minute of extra time, Zurich makes it 1:2 (after a throw-in that was a good 30 yards too far forward) to clinch the title in this deciding game. Unfortunately, what followed was even worse as massive riots in and around the stadium ensued. I remember sprinting back to the car with my dad in order to get away from the trouble.
 
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The Porto game in 2004 when they scored a last minute goal to knock us out... i was so angry I punched 2 bannisters out on my stairs. A couple of weeks later we drew with Arsenal with Saha scoring a late equaliser. I was upstairs and ran down, slipped and took out another 2 bannisters
 
The 4-3 derby at Old Trafford in 2009. That Owen goal leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth.

2019 UCL quarter final second leg against Spurs. We played out of our skin going forward and Sterling had possibly his best games in a City shirt but luck just wasn't on our side. The Llorente handball combined with the last minute goal being ruled out. Don't think I've ever felt so deflated after a game. The dramatic circumstances under which Spurs and Liverpool got through the semis just made it even worse.

Lyon 2020. Cornet still gives me nightmares.

2021 UCL final. No Rodri or Fernandinho for the first time all season. Explains itself.
 
Red the Bear said:
That season was very terrible and Fergie had become noticeably pessimistic in his approach to big games and too cynical.
Thankfully he rectified that mistake in our last title winning campaign .
U guess you could both of our downfalls started in the same year, at least we had a last hurray the following season.
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Our decline probably started the previous season when we stupidly sacked Allardyce nearly mid-way into the season. Under him, while the football wasn't like watching Brazil in 1982 or anything, we were under no serious relegation danger and were most likely heading for another mid-table finish. Not long before we had lost 7-1 at Old Trafford with Berbatov scoring 5 goals which wasn't fun, but either side of that we had pretty comfortable wins against Villa and Wolves, so that thrashing was basically irrelevant from our perspective.

After sacking him, we fell down the table and only mathematically avoided relegation on the final day of the season, but getting the chop the next season. In also turned out that Kean, who frequently received backing from his fellow group of Glaswegian Premier League managers including Fergie and Moyes, had been undermining Allardyce behind the scenes.

From Utd's perspective, in many ways I thought that clocking up 89 points in 2011/2012 with a pretty weak squad for their high standards under Fergie, further weakened by Vidic missing the 2nd half of the season, was actually an impressive achievement, despite the pain of losing that big lead and the Aguero moment.
 
The Semi Finals of The European Cup against Leverkusen and Last 16 against Porto absolutely slaughtered me at the time. I was absolutely gutted on both occasions.

The 4-4 at home to Everton was a pretty low one, I knew that day after that previous loss to Wigan we had blown it. Living in Manchester at the time I had to get the tram back from work the day of the City Parade. Vomit inducing.

Going back to youth it was the games culminating in losing the Division 1 League Title to Leeds in 92. I was absolutely sick and it just felt like we were never going to win it again (tbf I was 9, i was obviously aware due to my mum and dad being reds)...obviously that all changed :) Funny enough on the Everton theme I found the 95 FA Cup Final really hard to swallow, and obviously if you're talking about cup finals you cannot ignore dominating Arsenal for 120 minutes and getting done on pens.

My old man will always talk about the 79 Cup Final against Arsenal. Out of the game and then back to 2-2 and to lose it all over again was horrendous. He still struggles to talk about that one.
 
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londonredmaniac said:
The Semi Finals of The European Cup against Porto and Leverkusen absolutely slaughtered me at the time. I was absolutely gutted on both occasions.

The 4-4 at home to Everton was a pretty low one, I knew that day after that previous loss to Wigan we had blown it. Living in Manchester at the time I had to get the tram back from work the day of the City Parade. Vomit inducing.

Going back to youth it was the games culminating in losing the Division 1 League Title to Leeds in 92. I was absolutely sick and it just felt like we were never going to win it again...obviously that all changed :) Funny enough on the Everton theme I found the 95 FA Cup Final really hard to swallow, and obviously if you're talking about cup finals you cannot ignore dominating Arsenal for 120 minutes and getting done on pens.
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The Porto one was in the last 16th but seeing the opposition afterwards, its hard to not see us winning the damn thing afterwards.
The league was gone so Fergie would have probably for the first time in his career focused on only winning the ucl would have seen us win it, shame.

Hopefully we're just a cantona away from resuming success as we did back then.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
The Sevilla game under Mourinho and the football heritage speech that followed. Really exposed us as a clown club and gave some hard-hitting truths.
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Came here to say this. Certainly my post SAF pick anyway. Not in terms of the worst performance, result or anything like that. But it was the game that I realised Jose just wasn’t suited for us, the progress we’d made under him until that point wasn’t going to take us anywhere and we’d eventually end up sacking the obnoxious tit. Him mugging off his own club in the post match presser should have seen him sacked on the spot tbh.

Madrid 2013 sucked but I get the feeling we’d have gone out in the next round anyway. Porto 2004 stings because it was a Porto v Monaco final, we’d have probably won it that year if Howard could catch a football or if the linesman was actually watching.
 
Red the Bear said:
The bvb on hurts real bad because it was cantona's last chance to do a clean sweep and win a European cup as well.
I love Fergie but I really think he failed to capitalize on our dominance and extrapolate it to europe as I feel we were truly a dominant team in that stretch of 1998 to 2003 .

That Madrid 4-3 game stands out as well, easily the best team in competition m demolished one of the finalists in juve , top the group both times and with the final being in old Trafford be poised to go all the way, yet somehow throw it all away on that idiotic game.
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The damage was done in the first leg where Madrid absolutely outclassed us. They deserved to go through
 
Red the Bear said:
The Porto one was in the last 16th but seeing the opposition afterwards, its hard to not see us winning the damn thing afterwards.
The league was gone so Fergie would have probably for the first time in his career focused on only winning the ucl would have seen us win it, shame.

Hopefully we're just a cantona away from resuming success as we did back then.
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So it was, my memory isn't quite what it once was :) That was the real kicker. The disallowed Scholes goal and the fact that Porto had a fairly easy ride to the final.

I wish we were a Cantona away pal, I think we need about 12.....think there is a song about that?
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
Our decline probably started the previous season when we stupidly sacked Allardyce nearly mid-way into the season. Under him, while the football wasn't like watching Brazil in 1982 or anything, we were under no serious relegation danger and were most likely heading for another mid-table finish. Not long before we had lost 7-1 at Old Trafford with Berbatov scoring 5 goals which wasn't fun, but either side of that we had pretty comfortable wins against Villa and Wolves, so that thrashing was basically irrelevant from our perspective.

After sacking him, we fell down the table and only mathematically avoided relegation on the final day of the season, but getting the chop the next season. In also turned out that Kean, who frequently received backing from his fellow group of Glaswegian Premier League managers including Fergie and Moyes, had been undermining Allardyce behind the scenes.

From Utd's perspective, in many ways I thought that clocking up 89 points in 2011/2012 with a pretty weak squad for their high standards under Fergie, further weakened by Vidic missing the 2nd half of the season, was actually an impressive achievement, despite the pain of losing that big lead and the Aguero moment.
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I'm saying this with hindsight but cracks had set in the moment we gave away ronnie, we were simply going on due to fergie's brilliance by that time, we simply couldn't replace our aging team with worthwhile players (Owen and obertan to replace ronnie??), 2012 really illustrated that, crashing out of Europe, losing to city in that fashion, it was heart breaking.

I always wondered what happened to you lot, going from challenging our great 90s team and winning one to championship hell.
 
londonredmaniac said:
So it was, my memory isn't quite what it once was :) That was the real kicker. The disallowed Scholes goal and the fact that Porto had a fairly easy ride to the final.

I wish we were a Cantona away pal, I think we need about 12.....think there is a song about that?
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That game has insane butterfly effect ramifications, would mou had moved to Chelsea had he not won it then? we basically jumped start his career, very fun to think about.

Things can move very fast in football, hopefully its not 12 cantonas that we need and at most need like 5 .... :(
 
Barca 2009. Took me a while to get over that one.
 
charlenefan said:
The damage was done in the first leg where Madrid absolutely outclassed us. They deserved to go through
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They were pulling out the tricks but over the 2 legs the real difference was in the goalkeepers, Casilas made big saves at key times in both games while Barthez was a sieve, Utd created much more than Madrid over the 2 games.
 
Basic and predictable answer but the City vs QPR match. I still think about it and it still stings quite badly.

When we lost 1-4 to Liverpool at OT in 2009. I was at it, I've only been to 15-odd matches and it was by far the biggest.

The 2009 CL final when we lost to Barca. Easy to forget we were favourites. At first I told myself they just started well. We'll get one back. They just had a good first half, we'll control the second half, I kept bargaining and deluding myself until it just became obvious that they were a level better than this United side that I worshipped and thought was the absolute bees knees. That hurt.
 
Cup final defeats where we are well beaten don't hurt me as much as it does other people. I didn't feel hurt after losing to those great Barca teams. They were just better than us on the day and nobody wins every final they play in.

Everton in 95, Chelsea in the first final at the new Wembley, Arsenal in 2005 and Villarreal last season stand out more. All games I expected us to win and we didn't turn up in most of them. We did against Arsenal and the ball just wouldn't go in sadly. That one was different.
 
charlenefan said:
The damage was done in the first leg where Madrid absolutely outclassed us. They deserved to go through
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Going off by the Ueafa site we had 21 shots overall and 13 on target, Madrid had 5 on target...

I think it's fair to say that had it not been for a barthez disaster class that we would have seen it through.
 
Red the Bear said:
Going off by the Ueafa site we had 21 shots overall and 13 on target, Madrid had 5 on target...

I think it's fair to say that had it not been for a barthez disaster class that we would have seen it through.
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Yes, my thoughts as well, he was awful in both games and allowed Madrid to strut their stuff, 3-0 up in the first leg and Utd easily could have pulled that back to a draw with some of the misses they had, Even in the second Madrid got space but the amount of chances Utd missed and Barthez allowing Ronaldo to score 2 of the softest long range goals you will see, and the Raul and Figo goals from outside the box in the first leg were jokes as well.

His positioning for the first goal in the second leg, beat at the near post from an angle, and it was not even tight to the near post, then the second one from range, half way up the net, middle of the goal, the idiot is 8-9 yards out as a small keeper, routine save if he is in a normal spot.
 
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Red the Bear said:
Going off by the Ueafa site we had 21 shots overall and 13 on target, Madrid had 5 on target...

I think it's fair to say that had it not been for a barthez disaster class that we would have seen it through.
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All I can do here is repeat what I've said already, damage was done in the 1st leg. We deserved to win the 2nd leg and did, Madrid deserved to go through overall. You can't just point to stats without understanding the context (we had to go all out attack, Madrid were defending a lead etc)
 
Bobski said:
Yes, my thoughts as well, he was awful in both games and allowed Madrid to strut their stuff, 3-0 up in the first leg and Utd easily could have pulled that back to a draw with some of the misses they had, Even in the second Madrid got space but the amount of chances Utd missed and Barthez allowing Ronaldo to score 2 of the softest long range goals you will see.
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Why Fergie didn't go for van der sarr straight away after it became obvious his time at juve was not meant to be still befuddles me , we really messed up Peter's replacement.
A lot of games could have changed had we done it right.
 
The 09 CL final against Barca because that game was winnable but we made silly mistakes and kept losing concentration.

Also the 2010 quater-final against Bayern where again we got sloppy and made mistakes. What an unbelievable chance to win the CL that year, probably the last big chance we had.
 
Bayern away in 99/00. Pumped them all game, hit the woodwork 3 times, somehow lost 1-0 to get knocked out and Kahn blows out Mols' ACL. That team makes the semi-final imo. They outclassed a top Parma side, the midfield bossed Bayern's home and away, and Mols was unplayable.
 
Red the Bear said:
Why Fergie didn't go for van der sarr straight away after it became obvious his time at juve was not meant to be still befuddles me , we really messed up Peter's replacement.
A lot of games could have changed had we done it right.
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Think the reason Fulham got him was that his stock had fallen so much in Italy that most of the big boys didn't fancy the gamble.
 
charlenefan said:
All I can do here is repeat what I've said already, damage was done in the 1st leg. We deserved to win the 2nd leg and did, Madrid deserved to go through overall. You can't just point to stats without understanding the context (we had to go all out attack, Madrid were defending a lead etc)
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You make fair points , but here's the highlights of that game (the quality is shit but that how i remember seeing it)




The game is much more even than the scoreline suggests and if again the first goal by Figo is just so soft.
Barthez made the difference in that tie.
 
The CL final is what immediately comes to mind, although the 8-2 was very painful.
 
Gio said:
Think the reason Fulham got him was that his stock had fallen so much in Italy that most of the big boys didn't fancy the gamble.
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He was still a two time cl finalist, it's just hard to believe how he ended up at Fulda. Right after that spell .

Thank God we eventually got him anyway.
 
Donaldo said:
CL Final 2006 was the most crushing by some distance...especially when 11 v 11 we would've possibly run away with it.

The infamous Birmingham game I missed the first 80 mins, and caught the worst bit (apart from Eduardo's injury)

6-0 v Chelsea in 2013/14 when we were well placed for a proper challenge in the business end.

Sagna's injury v Chelsea in 2007/08 after scoring in the first half - I sensed that we were going to cock up the challenge then.

Bradford loss away was ctastrophical.

2002-03 last 5 games were gut crushing. feck Viduka.
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How would you have ran away with it 11v11? If Lehman doesn’t get sent off, does the Barcelona goal then count?
 
The city game at home this season. Never been so disappointed by my team and it underlined the lack of effort that’s been seen almost every game since.

Stopped caring about the team after that as they didn’t fancy playing for the badge.
 
Chelsea-Barcelona, and its not even close. Never, ever felt that much impotent rage at a game of football ever.

The JT slip in the CL final is a distant second. Felt like after we should have won it so many previous seasons it was finally going to arrive, and then that one tiny mishap and it was gone again. At that point it really did feel like we were never going to actually win the damn thing. :lol:
 
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