Devils To Tame German Wolves
The Wolves are on the hunt at Old Trafford. And I don’t mean the ones that got slaughtered by Sunderland over the weekend. This is the real deal, the German Wolves known as Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH but more conveniently referred to as VfL Wolfsburg. As the reigning Bundesliga champions, this is their first foray into the UEFA Champions League, and what better way to be introduced into the top tier of European football than with a trip to the reigning English and World club champions (it really hurts me to not be able to put European champions).
Not that Wolfsburg should feel overwhelmed in their maiden trip to England as they opened their UCL campaign with an impressive 3-1 victory over CSKA Moscow at their Volkswagen Arena fortress, aptly named as the club is fully owned by the car manufacturer. There’s no doubt that their title win last season was down to the goal-scoring exploits of Brazil’s Grafite and Bosnia’s Edin Dzeko. With 54 league goals between the pair, Wolfsburg were the first team in Bundesliga history to have two strikers score more than 20 goals in one season. Now that’s impressive, considering that the season before that, the entire team scored just as many goals in the league.
The brains in the Wolves midfield is the Bosnian captain Zvjezdan Misimovic, who led the league in goal assists last year. This is the man Darren Fletcher needs to stop because if he is allowed to dictate play in the middle of the park, you find yourself down to a Grafite hat-trick in no time. Just ask CSKA Moscow. If you can speak Russian.
Of course, the Wolfsburg of this season is a somewhat different proposition as their title-winning coach Felix Magath left to join big spenders Schalke 04. Under new manager Armin Veh, who had previously won the league with VfB Stuttgart, they have begun their league defence disappointingly, losing three of their first seven matches and sharing the worst defensive record with bottom-placed Hertha Berlin.
Basically, it’s not a good time for them to be facing a Manchester United side which has notched up seven victories on the trot. At the risk of marginalising others’ performances, Ryan Giggs has carried the team single-handedly at times in the past few weeks. Over the weekend, a brilliant second half lesson in the art of football from the Welshman helped break the deadlock at Stoke, as was the case the week before in the ‘boring’ Manchester derby (jokes aside, that match reaffirmed my commitment to wear a heart rate monitor whenever United plays). It’s perplexing and amazing that for a man who turns 36 next month, he gets stronger and more effective as the match wears on.
Sir Alex has to choose between sticking with the successful 4-4-2 formation in recent weeks and switching back to 4-5-1 which he favours on European nights. With it being a home match and after his goal at the weekend, I think Dimitar Berbatov should get the nod alongside Wayne Rooney in attack. Anderson, Fletcher and Giggs are almost certain of starting places and Park Ji-Sung will probably get the last slot in midfield to hound the likes of Misimovic and Grafite.
United’s last meeting with German opposition at Old Trafford was a 2-0 victory against VfB Stuttgart in the 2003/04 group stage. I expect a similar result on Wednesday night as the Wolves from Volkswagen town may find their engines stalling at the Theatre of Dreams. German car manufacturing notwithstanding, United have not lost a home game in the Champions League since a 1-0 defeat by AC Milan in February 2005, a run of 21 matches. I don’t see a side with Obafemi Martins in it breaking that record.
It’s going to be an intriguing first-ever encounter between the German and English champions. That’s what the Champions League is about, isn’t it? To see new sides with different methods of playing the beautiful game try to bring down the established order in Europe. I’m loving it. I’ve had enough of United-Villarreal matches to last me a lifetime.
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