Well if you thought Manchester United was just going to have a nice little vacation in Romania and come out with an easy three points, you were wrong. United could have really used an easy three points though. They've only taken two points from their opening two group games, and they have the Manchester derby coming up this weekend.
Otelul Galati had some other ideas though. Before the match they were saying all the "we're just happy to be here" type stuff, including comments about how they just hope they didn't get humiliated by the English giants.
United certainly had the lion's share of possession throughout the game. However more often than not they just seemed to walk their way through the match. Looking forward to Sunday maybe? Galati had a couple of chances in the first half that should have woken them up. Vidic turned the ball over in his own end in the 12th minute, and the 'keeper barely managed to keep Punosevac's shot out. The Galati attacker got a similar chance three minutes later, but this shot rolled harmlessly into the 'keeper's hands.
United had a couple of half chances, but nothing came of them and we went to half time at 0-0.
If the first half was uneventful, the referee decided the second half would not be, even if he had to do something about it himself. He handed out four yellow cards in the first 16 minutes, three to Galati and one to United. Then he pointed to the spot in the 63rd.
It was a deserved PK though. Galati captain Costin stuck his arm out and deflected a cross coming in from Hernandez in the 18. He received another yellow as well as the penalty call. Rooney nailed the PK and put United up 0-1.
Things got tense again just a few minutes later when the ref handed out his first red card of the match. Vidic went in on a flying tackle as a Galati player countered and earned the sending off. I thought it was just a yellow. However, the Fox Soccer crew pointed out after the match that Vidic did have both feet off the ground, which probably entered into the the ref's choice.
The red card count was leveled in the 89th minute though. Perendija received his second yellow for Galati and earned a trip to the locker room. Then just a few minutes later, Rooney was tripped up in the box and awarded a second PK. He drilled it home once again in stoppage time to seal the 0-2 win for United.
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