published: tuesday 10 december 2013, 22.40cet manchester united fc 1-0 fc shakhtar donetsk
phil jones scored to ensure united topped group a and the defeat ended shakhtar's hopes as bayer 04 leverkusen won.
manchester united fc put their premier league worries behind them with a 1-0 victory over fc shakhtar donetsk – a result that eliminated the ukrainian title-holders from this season's uefa champions league while securing first place in group a.
phil jones's 67th-minute goal earned united a third straight home success in group a and left shakhtar ruing a series of missed opportunities in a game where they had three times as many attempts on target. while united can now look forward to monday's draw for the round of 16, for shakhtar will be awaiting that for the uefa europa league last 32 an hour later after bayer 04 leverkusen pipped them to second place.
united came into the game looking for a big improvement on their successive home defeats by everton fc and newcastle united fc and manager david moyes's response was a team showing six changes from the newcastle game, although the most noteworthy starter was a player retained from saturday, 18-year-old attacker adnan januzaj. the belgian was making his first uefa champions league appearance and underlined his potential early on with a smart turn and shot at andriy pyatov.
with united already qualified, shakhtar's need for a result was arguably greater and they got players forward at every opportunity. they almost got a goal after 13 minutes when taison picked up the ball in the midfield, wriggled out of a cluster of red shirts and slipped a pass through to alex teixeira but under pressure from jonny evans he steered his left-foot shot past the far post. united looked vulnerable and teixeira almost took advantage when he accelerated away ryan giggs in the midfield, cut across both united centre-backs but shot straight at david de gea.
rio ferdinand lost the ball to teixeira on the united right but the resulting cutback to fred ended with a shot blocked by the centre-back, but it was not one-way traffic. ashley young missing two presentable chances. shakhtar pushed again after the restart and yaroslav rakitskiy saw his shot deflected by jones on to the post following a corner.
ın the end, though, it was jones at the other end who provided the decisive intervention. shakhtar failed to clear substitute robin van persie's corner at the near post and the ball carried to jones who from ten metres out fired home on the half-volley.
yardımcı hakemler: milovan ristić (srb), dalibor djurdjević (srb)
4. hakem: milan minić (srb)
çizgi hakemleri: danilo grujić (srb), miodrag gogić (srb)
man. united: david de gea (gk), rafael, phil jones, rio ferdinand, jonny evans, wayne rooney (c), ryan giggs (dk. 63 robin van persie), ashley young (dk. 63 tom cleverley), shinji kagawa, alexander büttner (dk. 88 antonio valencia), adnan januzaj
yedekler: anders lindegaard(gk), anderson, javier hernández, nani
shakhtar donetsk, manchester united'a konuk olduğu maçta rakibine 1-0'lık skorla boyun eğerek bayer leverkusen'in gerisinde grubu üçüncü sırada tamamladı. şampiyonlar ligi a grubu'nda manchester united, sahasında konuk ettiği shakhtar donetsk'i 1-0'lık skorla mağlup ederek gruptan lider olarak çıktı. bu yenilgiyle bayer leverkusen'e geçilen shakhtar donetsk, üçüncü sıraya geriledi.
karşılaşmanın ilk yarısı karşılıklı gol pozisyonlarına sahne olsa da iki takım da net fırsatlardan yararlanamadı.
12. dakikada taison'un ara pasında ceza sahasına sokulan teixeira'nın sol ayağıyla yaptığı vuruşta top az farkla auta gitti.
17'de ceza sahası içi sol çaprazda topla buluşan januzaj'ın vuruşunda pyatov gole izin vermedi. dönen topu ashley young kaleye göndermek istedi ama top farklı bir şekide üstten dışarı gitti.
28. dakikada shevchuk'un pasında ceza sahası içinde topla buluşan teixeira'nın vuruşunda de gea gole izin vermedi ve ilk 45 dakika golsüz eşitlikle sona erdi.
ikinci yarıda genel olarak oyunun temposu düşüktü. 67'de sağ kanattan kullanılan köşe vuruşunda savunmadan seken topu önünde bulan phil jones ceza sahası içinde topun gelişine sert bir vuruş yaparak fileleri havalandırdı: 1-0.
karşılaşmanın geri kalan bölümlerinde ise gol sesi çıkmadı ve 90 dakika sonunda üç puan manchester united'ın oldu.
bu galibiyetle manchester united 14 puanla grubu 1. sırada tamamlarken, shakhtar donetsk ise 8 puanda kalarak uefa avrupa ligi'ne katılmaya hak kazandı.
