Football News Update: Euro 2024, Champions League, FIFA World Cup, and More
When it comes to counter-attacking football, one instantly thinks of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United teams of the late 2000s, who perfected the art. The legendary Scot was known for his insistence on having elite-level strikers to finish off devastating passages of play, and he had one of his most lethal forward groups at his disposal.
Manchester United were already a formidable force with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, but they further bolstered their attack by adding Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov. In the 2006/07 season, as United sought to regain the Premier League title after a three-year drought, Rooney and Ronaldo both became certified megastars, finishing as the club’s joint top scorers with 23 goals each. They reclaimed the English top-flight crown and sent a warning to the rest of Europe, doing so with Ferguson’s trademark counter-attacking style.
This was on full display in a 4-1 win over Bolton in March 2007, where Ronaldo’s brilliant counter-attacking goal won the Premier League’s Goal of the Season award. The following season, with Tevez in the mix, United added another league title and their third Champions League, with Ronaldo scoring a club-record 42 goals.
In the 2008/09 campaign, Rooney and Ronaldo’s devastating partnership continued in Europe. After topping their Champions League group, United dispatched Inter Milan and Porto to set up a semi-final tie with Arsenal. At the Emirates, Ji-Sung Park and Ronaldo scored quickfire goals, but the goal of the night came from a devastating counter-attack. Nemanja Vidic’s header was cleared to Ronaldo, who flicked the ball to Park, who then played it to Rooney. Rooney carried the ball and laid it on a plate for Ronaldo to slam home, all in a matter of seconds.
As the football world looks ahead to the upcoming Euro 2024, Champions League, FIFA World Cup, and Women’s World Cup, fans will be hoping to see the kind of devastating counter-attacking displays that made Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United so feared.
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