Galatasaray – Manchester United 20.11.2012

The turkish champions from Galatasaray, welcomes Manchester United in a game from Group H of the Champions League.

Sir Alex Ferguson decided to rest most of his main players and leaved in England to rest  Rooney, Van Persie, Evra, Luis Valencia, Evans, De Gea, Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. Kagawa, Vidic and Nani are injured and also didn’t make the trip to Istanbul.

United finally had a low-scoring game in their last game vs. Norwich for the English Premier League and I expect them to return on the road of overs. I have no doubt that players like Young, Anderson, Welbeck and Hernandez will be on fire, burning with motivation and trying to prove a point to SAF, and they can do that by scoring goals. Their defence however looks very leaky with unexpirienced Wootton and Buttner, returning from long injury Jones and with offensive-minded right-back Rafael.

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Galatasaray and Fatih Terim will want to push here for the win and the 3 points, as mathematically the other game has only 33% chance to end with draw (which will suit Galatasaray the most) and 66% to end with win for one of the teams (which will leave Galatasaray on 3rd position). Their last game is an away fixture in Braga and they will want to go there having the upper hand. Galatasaray is an offensive minded team, they play with 2 strikers and with active wing and wingbacks. Their defence is positioning themselfs high and close to the center of the field in the Turkey SuperLiga. I expect them to sit a little bit deeper against United, but still pretty much in offensive mode. They have Umut Bulut, Burak Yilmaz and Johan Elmander to chose for the 2 strikers positions, so they will have option from the bench also if thigs go wrong.

The first game between them edned with 1:0 win for United, but Galatasaray performed very well, they hit the post and were denied clear penalty, anyway the game was very lively and pacy and didn’t deserve to end with under. United are not only qualified for the 1/8 finals, but they have also secured the 1st place, so the result doesn’t really matter to them and I expect them to play without pressure, but offensive and looking for the win. Galatasaray will play under heavy pressure, but they have no other options and will push for goals and the win.

Two teams with good offensive potential and leaky defenses, both playing for the win.