Manchester U 3 Reading 2

Man­chester Uni­ted 3 Read­ing 2, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Dec­ember 30, 2006. Man­chester Uni­ted, who were sit­ting top of the Pre­mier Lea­gue ta­ble wi­th a four-point gap be­tween them­selves and sec­ond po­si­tioned Chel­sea, struggled in the fir­st ha­lf ag­ainst Read­ing, but the ho­me si­de came back strong­er af­ter the break to gain all three points. 

Man­chester Uni­ted went in front three min­utes pa­st the ha­lf-hour ma­rk thanks to Ole Gun­nar Sol­skjaer who be­at Read­ing net­mind­er Mar­cus Hahne­mann wi­th a head­er from a su­perb cross by Cris­ti­ano Ron­aldo. Read­ing re­fused to be over­awed and the vis­it­ors equal­ised five min­utes la­ter thro­ugh Sene­g­alese centre-back Ibrahi­ma Sonko who­se head­er from a Nick Shor­ey free-kick flew pa­st Old Traf­ford goal­keeper Ed­win van der Sar and in­to the net. Man­chester Uni­ted began the bet­ter af­ter the re­start and took the lead for the sec­ond time in the mat­ch in the fifty-ninth min­ute of pro­ceed­ings as Cris­ti­ano Ron­aldo fou­nd the net from just out­side the six-yard area af­ter Sol­skjaer had hit the right-hand up­right wi­th a right-footed shot. Uni­ted push­ed on for a third goal and it soon came when Ron­aldo vol­leyed a per­fectly de­livered  cross from Ry­an Gig­gs pa­st Hahne­mann and in­to the net in the sev­enty-sev­enth min­ute of the clash. But the ga­me was not quite over yet as Leroy Li­ta, who had joi­ned Read­ing from Bris­tol City for a then club re­cord fee of £1 mil­lion at the be­gin­ning of the 2005-06 sea­son, re­gistered a late goal for The Bis­cuit­men by nut­meg­ging Van der Sar in stop­page time, ma­king the fi­nal score three-two in Man­chester United´s fa­vour. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Ed­win van der Sar, Wes­ley Bro­wn, Gab­riel Hein­ze, Rio Fer­dinand, Mi­kael Sil­vestre, John O’Shea, Ji-Sung Park, Mi­chael Car­rick, Way­ne Roo­ney, Ole Gun­nar Sol­skjaer, Cris­ti­ano Ron­aldo. Sub­stitutes: Ry­an Gig­gs, Kier­an Richard­son, Dar­ren Fletch­er, Louis Saha, To­masz Kusz­czak. Read­ing Te­am: Mar­cus Hahne­mann, Graeme Murty, Nicky Shor­ey, Ibrahi­ma Sonko, Ivar Ingi­marsson, Ste­ven Sid­well, Bryn­jar Gun­narsson, Glen Little, Ja­mes Har­per, Leroy Li­ta, Kev­in Doyle. Sub­stitutes: Sam Sod­je, Steph­en Hunt, Ki-Hyeon Seol, John Os­ter, Ad­am Federici.

Manchester United Quickfacts

Af­ter be­ing held to a one-all draw in the fir­st mat­ch, Man­chester Uni­ted be­at Read­ing by three goals to no­ne in an FA Cup Third Ro­und Re­play at Old Traf­ford on the twenty-ninth of Feb­ruary 1912.

UNITED FEATURES UNITED REPORTS UNITED REVIEWS UNITED STORIES

Front Page