2007-2008, Manchester United season

2007-2008 was Manchester United’s second most successful season ever. They retained their Premiership title and, in addition, won the UEFA Champions League.

To an already successful side, Alex Ferguson added four players before the start of the season: Anderson, Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Carlos Tevez. The Glazers continued to back their manager in the transfer market, recouping some of the money through fairly steep rises in ticket prices.

The Premiership season began slowly. Manchester United scored no more than one goal in any of their first six matches. Eventually they got into their stride and the goals came. They came mainly from Cristiano Ronaldo who, in all competitions, scored forty-two goals. Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez also scored freely. It was Newcastle United that conceded most MU goals, losing 6-0 and 5-1. The Premiership was more closely fought than for many seasons. It was only decided on the last day, when Manchester United beat Wigan Athletic 2-0 and Chelsea drew 1-1 with Bolton Wanderers. It was Manchester United’s tenth Premiership title in sixteen seasons and their seventeenth league title overall.

In the FA Cup, Manchester United drew Premiership teams in every round. One of the easier matches should have been at home to Portsmouth in the quarter-finals. Despite dominating the game, a penalty won it for Portsmouth, who then went on to win the competition.

The climax of the 2007-2008 season came in the Champions League. Three Premiership teams, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, all reached the semi-finals. Chelsea beat Liverpool, and a Paul Scholes goal helped Manchester United beat Barcelona. The final was in Moscow, in the rain. Ronaldo scored first, but Lampard equalised. The game went to extra time, then penalties. All the early penalty-takers scored, except Ronaldo. The last penalty was John Terry’s. If he scored, Chelsea would win. Despite sending van der Saar the wrong way, Terry put his penalty wide of the post. Shortly afterwards van der Saar saved from Anelka and Manchester United had won.

The team was led up to receive the Champions League trophy by Bobby Charlton. It was fifty years since the team he played for in his youth was destroyed in Munich attempting to win the European Cup. The fiftieth anniversary of the Munich air disaster had been marked in Manchester in February. A new ‘Munich Tunnel’ was opened at Old Trafford. The game in February against Manchester City was preceded by a one minute silence. Manchester United played in a 1950’s style kit. Perhaps overawed by the occasion, they lost the game 2-1.

For the second successive season Cristiano Ronaldo won both the Football Writers’ and the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Players’ Player of the Year awards. In the summer he toyed with joining Real Madrid, but a rejuvenated Ferguson persuaded him to stay.