Manchester United travels to Ewood Park on Saturday to face Blackburn Rovers in a tricky premier league encounter. On the back of a 3-0 Champions League triumph over Aalborg BK away at the Energi Nord Arena in Denmark, the Red Devils is expected to come out full of confidence against Blackburn Rovers away at Ewood Park. Home side Blackburn Rovers will also try to build on their recent performance that saw the Rovers seeing off Everton 1-0 in the league cup and pulled off a 2-1 victory away at Newcastle United. So, both the sides are playing some of their good football at this moment.
Match: Blackburn Rovers vs Manchester United, English Premier League 2008-2009
Date: 4 October 2008, Saturday
Venue: Ewood Park
Kick off: 17:30 BST (British Standard Time)
Manchester United started their title defense campaign poorly. However, the defending champions are gradually coming back to their prime form. From the drawn match at Chelsea, Manchester United has been getting better with time progresses. However, it is noteworthy that the Red Devils are still at the 11th position with eight points from five matches. So, Alex Ferguson boys can not afford to lose any more points at this stage of the competition as the difference with leader Chelsea has already gone up to six points with United having a match at hand.
For Blackburn Rovers, it is going to be a hard game, considering Manchester United’s recent good form. However, Blackburn also has some good reasons to go all out against Manchester United. They can take inspiration from the fact that they could settle for a point against United in last season’s corresponding fixture thanks to a 1-1 draw at Ewood Park. So, the Rovers will look to build on last season’s home success. Moreover, Paul Ince’s side has been in good run since their 4-0 humiliation to Arsenal at home. Since that defeat, Blackburn Rovers won over Fulham 1-0 at home, knocked out Everton 1-0 in the league cup and recently, they pulled off an excellent 2-1 away victory over Newcastle United. So, Blackburn Rovers seems to have enough reasons to be confident before going into the match.
Manchester United also has something to cherish on ahead of the visit to Ewood Park. In their last five matches in all competitions, Manchester United won three and drew the others without suffering any defeat. In their last three outings, Manchester United scored eight goals, while conceded only one. In the league cup, United defeated Middlesbrough 3-1 at home, then picked up an easy 2-0 home victory over Bolton Wanderers and after that came the emphatic 3-0 victory over Danish champions Aalborg BK in the midweek.
Manchester United has some other things to count on. First of all, their record summer signing Dimitar Berbatov found his scoring form for his new club, scoring two goals in Manchester United’s 3-0 Champions League victory in Denmark. Wayne Rooney has also found his scoring form back and played very well in the last couple of games. Last but not the least, their ace attacking player Cristiano Ronaldo is also back with his prime form. So, manager Sir Alex Ferguson seems to have no worry ahead of the trip to Ewood Park. However, the truth is that bad news is also there around the corner. Manchester United will reportedly be without their experienced midfielder Paul Scholes for up to ten weeks, as the player suffered knee ligament damage during United’s 3-0 Champions league win over Aalborg BK in Denmark.
Blackburn Rovers is also missing their no. 1 goalkeeper Paul Robinson who suffered an injury during their Carling Cup victory over Everton and was limped off during the match. Reserve goal keeper Jason Brown help Bolton keep it clean sheet and ensure a victory. The Wales goalkeeper got his much-awaited first premier league start against Newcastle United, ending his two year’s wait for a place in the starting line up for a premier league encounter. He did not take too much time to impress his boss Paul Ince, saving an important spot kick taken by Michael Owen that eventually helped Blackburn picking up a 2-1 away victory. Jason Brown is now gearing up to face Manchester United.
Ahead of the match against Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers boss asked his players to come out with killer instinct. Though Blackburn won three points against Newcastle, the manager is not quite happy as his players, he thinks, should have pulled off a convincing win over Newcastle United.
Online Live Score and Updates
Here, I am giving some names of the online live score websites from where you can get the live score and updates of the match:
Live Score
Goalzz
Live Football Scores
Goal.com
Footie Scorez