VIEW: United vs Rangers. 0-0

Opening
Champions League night against Rangers.




From the moment the anthem plays, feelings of excitement and expectation overpowers Old Trafford.

And the team selection confirms those emotions, as Ferguson bravely drops all but one of our Goodison Park
flop...a controversial yet in no way detrimental move.

Rooney’s
back, but is almost inevitably overpowered by the occasion.

Chances
come and go, with positive passages of attacking play and long periods of
possession dominating our game. But there is zero end product.

0-0 is how
it ended. Resilient Rangers prevail and a point for both teams in the first
game in Group C is fair and just.

But
unfortunately the night was anything but fair and just. Unfortunately, the
sound of the Champions League anthem and the presence of Wayne Rooney back on
the field – as well as European debutants Smalling and Hernandez – could not disguise
the true tragedy of the night.

For the
result pales into insignificance after the game’s – potentially our season’s –
defining moment on the 62nd minute.

Antonio
Valencia, one of last season’s best performers and by far our most inventive and energetic
performer on the field yesterday, suffered a horrible dislocation and fracture on his
left ankle.  One of our most pivotal players has fallen victim to the unkindest of trends that has hit a number of the Premier Leagues unluckiest footballers over the past few seasons.

A horrific
injury that has immediately been diagnosed as a season ending...however perhaps at this time of shock and frustration at having such a brilliant player ruled out, it’s
worth remembering Alan Smith’s similar injury in 2006. The soldier who laughed at his doctors and was sidelined for a mere 7 months.

So let’s
all pray Antonio has a successful operation, speedy recovery…and is instilled with
the same lion heart as Smudge.