¿Fair match?

Yesterday, the 5th March, Manchester United played against Real Madrid CF, and many people are wondering about the headline question. That is because of the red card that was shown to Nani, a fundamental player for the Red Devils, at the beginning of the second part of the game. Even though Mourinho said that the winner (Real Madrid) wasn't the best team I think it was a fair victory.

To explain why, let’s analyze the second half of the match. It started, and 3 minutes later Sergio Ramos socred an own goal accidentally after Welbeck touched the ball. After that, Real Madrid put his men helping the strikers, very offensively, but Manchester kept trying to score another goal. But that was until Nani kicked Arbeloa and he saw the red card. Here is the first doubt of the second half: Was the referee right by showing Nani the red card? When I saw the repetition I saw that Nani had put the leg very high, and I consider that dangerous playing. But he didn't just move the leg, he hit Arbeloa in the chest, reminding me of the kick that Xabi Alonso received in the World Cup final. That's why for me Nani had to go sit in the bench.

And here is the second doubt of the second part: Would the same thing have happened if Nani hadn’t been shown the red card? After Nani left the match, Manchester stopped attacking and the whole team start to defend, but Real Madrid kept doing the same thing, having posession of the ball, but with one more man attacking, because Arbeloa, a deffender, was substitued by Modric, an offensive player. So Madrid was attacking better, but United was deffending better, too. That's why I think Nani wouldn't have been important the rest of the match, because Nani is an offensive player and Manchester needed deffending then.

In the minute 65, Modric scored a good goal by overtaking a deffender and shooting from about 30 metres from De Gea's goal, who couldn't do anything to stop the powerful shot, that hit the post before it came into the goal.

In the minute 68, the second goal arrived by the hand of Cristiano Ronaldo. Modric started the play passing the ball to Higuaín, that was in the right side of the box, next to Özil, who recieved and gave back the ball with the hill. Then, Higuaín passed the ball near the left post, where Ronaldo would score the second goal for Real Madrid. But he didn't celebrate the goal, because Manchester United had been his team until 2009 and he respected that.

After that, Real Madrid did a substitution: Pepe came in and Özil went out. That way, Real Madrid had again 4 defenders, a good decision because Manchester had to score 2 goals and the whole team would attack since then.

United played better than Madrid the rest of the match, and they had many chances to score, but Diego López was inspired and he didn't let any Devil to score. He did 3 magnificent stops, which saved Real Madrid from defeat.

So, was it a fair match? In my opinion, yes, it was.

David Pender Villalvilla