CARLING CUP quarter final
Old Trafford, Manchester, 20.00pm GMT, Wednesday 3rd December 2008
Attendance: 53,997

Article by Mark Graham, Editor, Record Keeper & Official Reporter @ MUFCINFO.COM

The Apache was on the War Dance at Old Trafford on a freezing cold Wednesday Night as United & Blackburn served up an 8 goal thriller. 

Like the proverbial annoying Wasp that wont go down when heavily swatted with a large book, Paul Ince's Rovers kept getting back into the game despite United's dominance & profitable end product.

A 4 Goal haul by the Argentine Striker & Nani effort combined were enough to put the Reds into the Semi Final draw with Derby County, Giant Killing Burnley & Premiership Outfit Tottenham Hotspur.

SAF rang in several changes as expected with the Three "Veterans" all involved as Gary Neville was given a start with Giggs & the surprise of the night Paul Scholes returning after a lengthy lay off with injury.

There was also starts for Ben Foster, Rafael, Darron Gibson, Possebon & a substitute appearance for Angolan Manucho.

Blackburn sprung into action immediately and was it not for the intervention of Ben Foster, the home side could have found themselves trailing inside 5 minutes after a Stephen Warnock effort went close causing Foster to tip the shot over & Derbyshire smashed a deceptive swerver that forced another great save.

Blackburn pressed again with dangerous set pieces causing panic in the United penalty box as Foster tipped over the corner which looked as if it could have slipped directly into the net.

As quick as Blackburn attacked, they were pinned back as Giggs & Anderson began to run proceedings, Darron Gibson had a chance cleared off the line by Martin Olsson & Jonny Evans caused a scare for Robinson.

The Home side took the lead through what could have been a Aaron Mokoena own goal after Ryan Giggs' free-kick at the far post beat Robinson with Tevez lurking.

Blackburn replied with a Santa Cruz header that went wide & United's lead was doubled soon after when Tevez laid the ball on a plate for Nani after a one-two saw his shot at the Blackburn goal beat Paul Robinson after what looked a slight deflection.

Two nil up & United cruising at half time, Paul Ince in desperate need of fire power introduced Benni McCarthy at the start of the second half & the South African did not disappoint as a simple long ball from Robinson was flicked on from Roque Santa Cruz & the resulting long ball caused Gary Neville big problems when McCarthy outmuscled him & raced into the box to finished past Foster.

At the nucleus of every United attack, Carlos Tevez then made it 3-1 after he gave Andre Ooijer the slip and after he was felled in the box he converted the penalty with ease in his usual impressive technique. (Editor: Check out the replay of his penalty approach).

Four minutes later United then scored quite the majestic goal when Ryan Giggs found Anderson quite brilliantly with a back heel pass & after a series of spellbinding one-two's, clean through the Brazilian showed true class with a quite selfless act and instead of opening his account, he decided to reward Tevez with a simply tap in for his 1st of hopefully many hat-tricks in a Red, Blue, Black or White shirt.

SAF eased Paul Scholes back into the mix as he replaced Possebon & with seemingly an injury JOS left the field to be replaced by Patrice Evra.

With the match looking done & dusted, Blackburn after being heavily swatted with what seemed like the Man Utd Opus suddenly threatened to have the Old Trafford faithful staying a while longer in the freezing conditions as Matt Derbyshire pulled one back, Olsson hit a post & that man McCarthy scored all within minutes of each other taking the game to 4-3 & too close for comfort.

However one man stood taller than all on the pitch & his final say promptly knocked the faint flicker of life from Rovers as Anderson's ball into the box had Tevez emphatically volley home with stinging power with only seconds left of the four minutes of injury time.

This now leaves all United fans with an interesting window into the SAF/Tevez scenario on Saturday, on form I don't care if we have Pele instead of Berbatov...........Tevez must start
 
ARE YOU WATCHING SAF!!!!

What's your opinion on the Match?.....HAVE YOU'RE SAY BELOW

 MUFCINFO's MAN OF THE MATCH