Inter Milan vs Manchester United CL 08-09: Preview, Live Score

(This entry was originally posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009)

Italian champion Inter Milan hosts English champion Manchester United on 24 February in the first leg last 16 fixture of UEFA Champions League. Football fans are expecting a hardly-fought encounter between the two elite clubs of Europe. Moreover, both the clubs are in good form in domestic league and no doubt, are full of confident. Is not that enough to make you expect an exciting affair on Tuesday? If not, then wait because there are few more things that you would like to reckon about the match.

Match: Inter Milan and Manchester United, First Knockout Round, UEFA Champions League 08-09

Date: 24 February 2009, Tuesday

Venue: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro), Milan, Italy

Kick off: 19:45 GMT (British Standard Time)

First of all, both sides are going short of enough defensive options as some of their key defenders are missing the match through injury and suspension, but the strikers on both camps are enjoying a very good time, indicating a goal-flooded match on Tuesday. Specially, Manchester United is facing intense pressure to come to terms with a number of injury blows in its defensive options. Nemanja Vidic will miss the trip to San Siro because of suspension, while Gary Neville’s participation is not yet confirmed as the veteran centre back is suffering from a virus. Jonny Evans was limped out of United’s recently 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers in premier league and he is doubtful for the Inter Milan clash. Wes Brown is out for a number of weeks with a metatarsal injury.

John O’Shea will be the partner of Rio Ferdinand in the centre of United defense, only if he can overcome his heel injury. In that case, youngsters like Fabio da Silva and Adam Eckersley are left fit in the dressing room to come on the field and play alongside Ferdinand. Inter Milan’s worry for lack of enough defensive option is not that big, but the injuries of the key players like Marco Matterazzi , Ivan Cordoba, Cristian Chivu and Nicolas Burdisso will surely take a toll on Inter Milan defense and I think, Inter’s defense against Manchester United would not be anywhere to their very best.

Former Manchester United star David Beckham has said that Inter Milan’s main strength lies in its attacking line up that boast of the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. So, the depleted United defense might have to struggle to restrict the prolific scorer like Ibrahimovic in front of Inter Milan fans. However, Inter Milan can not just sit and relax as they know they have to restrict the players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, and Carlos Tevez without some of their key defenders and this would not be easy too.

Both Manchester United and Inter Milan are sitting atop the league table with a considerable distance in their respective domestic leagues. Manchester United is leading the premier league with 62 points from 26 outings, 7 points clear of second placed Liverpool. Inter Milan holds a 9-point lead over second placed Juventus as the Nerazzurris have 59 points from 25 matches.

Though Manchester United defense, in the absence of some injured players, now looks very weak, they recently went record 14 premier league matches without conceding any goal, making a premier league record for maintaining clean sheet for 1,333 minutes, a run that ended last Saturday when Blackburn Rover’s Roque Santa Cruz scored.

Inter Milan reached the last 16 of Champions League as the runner up of group B with 8 points, while United progressed to the first knock out round as the group E champion 10 points. The Red Devils did not lose any match in the group stage, but Inter suffered two defeats in the group stage at the hands of Greek giants Panathinaikos and German club Werder Bremen in their last two group matches, and thus, the Italian giants are within a victory in their last 3 Champions League fixtures. Last time, Manchester Untied visited San Siro to meet Inter Milan came way back in 1999 and the match was ended up with a 1-1 draw, but United won the two-leg quarter final on 3-1 aggregate and went on to win the Champions League. United’s Italy record in recent years is not satisfactory at all with only 3 wins, 10 loss and 2 draws. Inter Milan played an English club at home 13 times with 6 victories, 4 draws and 3 losses.

Online Live Score and Updates

Here, I am giving some live score and update websites from where you can get the live score and updates of the match between Inter Milan and Manchester United:

Live Score

Goalzz

Live Football Scores

Goal.com

Footie Scorez

Had United not faced the defensive problem, I would have picked them up as the favorite against Inter Milan, but at this moment, I think, there are enough reasons to declare it a 50-50 chance for both sides. Still, Manchester United seems to have a very slight edge over Inter Milan as far as the midfield depth of the two sides is concerned. United midfield in the presence of the veterans like in-form Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes seems to be stronger than that of Inter Milan and I think, the team which will control the midfielder will have better chance in the match.