Second-String Seal Second Place

By David Hobbs
December 8 2004

A very depleted Manchester United side slumped to their first defeat in 10 games following their 3-0 Champions League defeat by the hands of Fenerbahce. Sanil Tuncay's second half hat-trick rounded off a well deserved victory for home-side Fenerbahce. The Red Devils had qualified prior to the match.

Second-String Seal Second Place

Fenerbahce 3
Tuncay 46, 62, 90

Manchester United 0

A very depleted Manchester United side slumped to their first defeat in 10 games following their 3-0 Champions League defeat by the hands of Fenerbahce. Despite being already qualified, the United second-string could have finished top of Group D but proved to weak for the physically strong Turkish outfit.

Sanil Tuncay's second half hat-trick rounded off a well deserved victory for home-side Fenerbahce, taking advantage of gauche defending by a frail United side.

Lyon now take the prestige of finishing above The Red Devils in the group after their thrashing of Sparta Prague. The Turks will be playing UEFA Cup football after the Christmas break whilst Sparta will have to work hard this season and having another pop next time around.

The team that made the journey East caused some uncertainty amongst the United faithful, even though their team had already qualified prior to the game. Traveling fans would be disappointed, knowing they could have witnessed a similar team at Moss Lane, the home of Ricky Sbraiga's reserves.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the only player to have any vast senior team experience this season. David Bellion started alone up-front and was supported by a 5-man midfield including Liam Miller, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Darren Fletcher and Kieran Richardson. Sir Alex Ferguson didn't even install a back-up net, leaving many inexperienced teenagers on the Reds' bench.

Goalkeeper Tim Howard, replacing new Number 1 Roy Carroll in-between the sticks, read Fenerbahce's early pressure very well, collecting a number of crosses and keeping Sanil Tuncat at bay.

For what a quiet first half produced, the second half made up for. The game looked pretty even in the first interval with both sides enjoying pretty spells on the ball.

Just 2 minutes into the second half, Fenerbahce broke the deadlock courtesy of star striker Tuncay. The Turk unleashed a right-footed thunderbolt that Howard had no chance what-so-ever in saving.

Confidence seemed to be dented from then-on. Brazilian Alex used his tricky pace and skills to bamboozle the defending United players and whipped in a fine cross for Tuncay to head home and double his side's advantage soon after.

Gerard Pique, Chris Eagles and Jonathan Spector were all introduced in order to block Fenerbahce decaying the defence any further. Wes Brown, Kieran Richardson and Liam Miller all made way.

Tuncay drew a close to proceeding deep into stoppage time, firing in his hat-trick from outside the box.

Could Sir Alex Ferguson have adopted a relaxed attitude for this tie in order to avoid Barcelona and Real Madrid in the next round? Well, if so, it worked.

Final Table:

	Points	Goal Difference
Olympique Lyonnais	13	+ 8
Manchester United	11	+ 5
Fenerbahce	9	- 3
Sparta Prague	1	- 10

 

Final Score: Fenerbahce 3 - 0 Manchester United

Fenerbahce: Recber, Turaci, Luciano, Cetin, Ozat, Balci, Sahin, Aureilo, Tuncay, Alex, Nobre. Subs: Sergen, Erdogdu, Akin, Hacioglu, Yozgatli, Fabiano, Demirel.

Manchester United: Howard; Neville, Brown, O'Shea, Fortune; Ronaldo, Djemba-Djemba, Fletcher, Richardson, Miller; Bellion. Subs: Ebanks-Blake, McShane, Eagles, Jones, Spector, Pique, Ricardo.

Refereed By: Ibanez (Spain)