Eurosport - Thu, 14 May 16:25:00 2009
Carlos Tevez inspired a second-half comeback as Manchester United moved to the brink of the Premier League title with a 2-1 win at Wigan.
The Argentine came off the bench to cancel out Hugo Rodallega's opening goal in spectacular fashion, before Michael Carrick netted a cool winner five minutes from time.
United need just one point from their final two games to retain the title, and can do so in front of their Old Trafford crowd against Arsenal on Saturday.
Tevez, who appears set to leave Old Trafford at the end of the season, has been the subject of fevered transfer speculation in recent days, but it was his contribution on the pitch that left United fans open-mouthed.
Having started the match on the bench, the 25-year-old produced an outrageously inventive back flick to turn in a low Carrick ball just after the hour mark.
Tevez has complained about United's reluctance to turn a two-year loan into a permanent deal, but if he had played all season like he has the last two games - he scored a fine goal in the Manchester derby on Sunday - perhaps his future at Old Trafford might already be secured.
The bald truth is that six Premier League goals in 29 appearances are not the work of a £30 million striker. Yet if he does go, this goal will be some parting gift.
On a wet night at the JJB Stadium, United missed a host of chances before Rodallega's opportunistic opener. Wayne Rooney had the best of those in the 10th minute, when he peeled away unmarked in the box to meet Dimitar Berbatov's clipped cross.
Yet somehow the England striker headed wide with Richard Kingson's goal at his mercy.
A minute later a clearly furious Rooney started another attack, and United worked the ball around magnificently through Paul Scholes, Berbatov and Cristiano Ronaldo to Carrick, who lifted his shot just over.
But United were not alone in their profligacy. With less than two minutes on the clock Antonio Valencia nicked the ball past Jonny Evans - still standing in for the injured Rio Ferdinand - and raced clean through on goal.
But the Ecuadorean sent his attempted chip just wide, possibly distracted by the presence of Nemanja Vidic on his shoulder.
Another Evans slip let Rodallega through in similar fashion, and although he got his shot on target from 20 yards it never seriously tested Edwin van der Sar.
There was nothing the goalkeeper could do on 28 minutes, when Rodallega and Vidic jumped for a header, the ball looped up and both players momentarily lost their bearings, but the Colombian reacted quickest and fired a low shot past Van der Sar at the near post.
A livid Vidic thought he had been impeded, and his backchat to referee Rob Styles earned him a stern talking-to. Ronaldo's unhappiness at being denied what he deemed a clear penalty added to United's foul mood, and they left the field for half-time under a collective storm cloud.
The Portuguese was down in the Wigan box again after the break, having lost his balance following a Maynor Figueroa challenge.
Alex Ferguson has grown to tolerate Ronaldo's pouting, but the 24-year-old's histrionics while the ball was still in play and in the Wigan area will not have pleased his manager.
Ronaldo, having scored free-kicks in his last two matches, hit three poor efforts straight into the Wigan wall and produced several other wayward shots.
What seemed like a night to forget came good just three minutes after Tevez's introduction just before the hour.
Carrick drove a diagonal attempted shot in from the right, the Argentine had no time to set himself but did not have to, propelling the ball into the bottom-right corner with a flick of his right boot.
As time wound down, Carrick made another telling contribution. John O'Shea played a low ball to the edge of the box from the right and the midfielder guided a fine left-foot shot into the top-left corner.
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Tevez is an united player and he will be one until he retires . . .ferguson is just testing tevez by putting him in hard situations and he's done pretty well . . .everyone would check a diamond before they buy it (the money) . . .he will still be an united player next season . . .coming to berba , he's a playmaker . .he cant play like tevez opr rooney . . .they both are diff from berba . . .berba is doing a very good job on his first season at old trafford . . . .CR7 is still doing a grt job as he has ever done . . .he's has played more like a winger this season , defending and coming back (a good sign), and wants to play more . . . . .hats off to ferguson . . .motivation is the key to winning and he provides it very well . . .all players wd stay at OT . . . No dumb idiot wd leave the champions to play for losers like liverpool or city . . .united for ever :)
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Grow up John, You cannot blame United because Liverpool bottled it. Once again Man U. proved without doubt that they have proved year after year that they The Premier League Champions.
well done united you won the league with the usual help from your referee friends who as usual gave you all the crucial decisions in matches when you were struggling ie villa spurs etc etc.john
what exactly has ballack or torres got to do with tevez taking united to the brink of another title?
I hope thet Tevez stay in the team!
suerely M U will top the table again. They are the greatest team in the world. Even a billion dollars can,t buy them.
Is 'go' out on licence from his local lunatic asylum?
nah...too late. no point building around ballack now. he will only be with us one more year. just signed a one yr contract. i expect him to leave football after the world cup. he's got a great family to look after now. sadly we will have to build a midfield around that boy mikel now and that i can't possibly imagine to give anything but headaches. for another 3 yrs we can function with the system we have built to free lampard. if we have cole and 2 other wingers as well as a young striker we can stay competitive. but that will end so that's why i wish we can get the bender boys if our scouts aren't too busy scouting for coaches instead. in 5 yrs they would be solid. i would trust the midfield to a german any day twice on a weekend. and if it is two germans, that's jackpot. 2 central midfielders.
cheers go didnt know you had german connections thanks for the info on the twins ones to watch me thinks cheers and i agree with you ballack is stifled in the way chelsea play and maybe to get the best from him you would have to build the midfield around him rather than him adapt to a new role he is a good player and i thought we would have signed him but you offered him a massive wage so you got him again cheers for the info
c.Ron is an actor..not a footballer...
dazzy. i've known him for a long time as part of my german family is related to his mother's family. he was always an attacking midfielder. at chelsea he could never give his full potential. I am happy we brought him here though. but the attacking midfield is filled by lamps so ballack has had to play the support role or defensive mid. I am happy with his performance as he barely puts a foot wrong. but our game is rather limited with the current squad. we can't use his power in the air as no one can give crosses. besides we can't play a diamond shaped 442 formation and neither can we play a wide 442 so ballack is forced to play in a role that doesn't take advantage of his full abilities. the fools who say he can't play have no answer why he shines for germany and single handedly took yet another out of shape german team to the final of the euro, yet with a team of what we call stars he seems to not shine as much. they forget the head of the team is the coach and players do what coaches ask of them. but he does exactly what the coaches ask him to do and with that I am happy. we have another problem in the team and that is the space that lampard and cole leave as neither one can defend and their minds are set only on attack mode, so playing ballack out of position is really not a worry. he can do it.
the bender twins are the new rising stars of german football. they dominated the u19 european cup last summer. brilliant guys. they are currently in bundesliga 2 with the other munchen team. in fact united tried to sign them when they were 17. but they turned you guys down as they don't want to rush into the big stage before they feel ready. real madrid is looking to sign the twins this year as they have for the past 2 yrs.
mamudjev i don't play video games. players just like any other nonmutated or brain damaged human being adapt to their circumstances. if the bundesliga has a slower pace than the epl why should players do more than it's required of them? you can't raise a league's standards by raising a team or a player. and last i checked it was the bremen hamburg in the uefa that were the best games so far in terms of football in the last month of so if you watched them. and besides it seems to me like the bundesliga is much more competitive than enen our epl judging from the fact that there are 5 teams that mathematically can win the league with 2 matches to go.comparing leagues is as pointless as me comparing england or europe to zimbabwe or africa and claim that african's don't work as hard as we do since their life standards are so much lower than ours. that would be very very weak reasoning. why don't you come back to the real world and stop playing video games ok. there is a lot to enjoy from life without cheering for photons on a plasma screen. any player who performs under the pressure on the biggest stage and expectations such as the world cup and euro can do more than what he is actually doing. and klose doesn't need to prove himself. i doubt you know how to judge players without your computer game statistics that someone else created for you. give me some reality next time you write a comment, cuz i won't respond to what you see on video games.
U lost in the CL final last year and the semi final this year, it wasnt a good feeling was it??? Maybe JT's mother can give u some tissues from the stuff she took when she was shoplifting, now all go and cry together
go why do you think ballack doesnt do well at chelsea is it the way the midfield set up is or is he playing out of position you could be right about the german players as they adapt quickly and there style and games are similar to the prem who are the bender twins never heard of them what team they at its good we are chatting about football instead of slagging each others teams maybe even you and my pal assassin may start chatting instead of slagging now that would be a result call a truce boys its only football and it comes back around every year peace
@889 Klose? KLOSE????lol OK, i guess u're one of those, who have overslept the last, hm..., 10 years?! Klose ist not even close, to what a PL striker should be like (and i'm speaking about his "good years"@ bremen).Poldi, trochowski?ok, tell me something pls, don't u get it, that werder at @ the final only becouse of Diego? And with only i mean ONLY! I use to like german football too, but nowodays they just don't have to compare with the major leagues, not even with the french one. anf that reflects ofcourse on the so called stars of the Bundesliga like Toni, Podolski, even Pizzaro (we all saw, how gr8 he can play, when thing speed up a lot).
So, my advice, play some football manager and buy those players, cos its the only way to see them in PL
no @#$%. didn't you just do that? come on admit it you, you love a good fight. your day would be as boring as united's season if chelsea wasn't a worthy adversary that pushes them to go the extra mile. you might be arrogant but we know that the fight we give you makes you feel good inside. noone likes to win cheaply even arrogant urinals. but the respect that comes from winning a hard fight is blocked by your arrogance and hypocrisy that you wear all season which spoils the fruits of a hard fought battle.
cheers phil k didnt know that still think he would look good in a united shirt even with the alice band lol
torres would never go to united. soz to let you all down. and anyway congrats united but to be honest i still have a funny feeling that liverpool will just about win the league. and dont even think about fernando torres coming to old trafford because its only going to happen in your dreams! LOL
Ballack is barmy just like you and the rest of the crying chelski squad and i dont think we'd want him on a "free"
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