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Results Based News

United stun Gunners

Author: Craig Williams
Date: 06/05/2009

Two goals inside 11 first-half minutes sent Manchester United to the Champions League Final for the second successive season following a 3-1 semi-final second-leg victory over Arsenal.

Quickfire goals from Ji-Sung Park and Cristiano Ronaldo effectively killed off Arsenal's hopes of staging a fightback on home soil after trailing 1-0 from last week's first leg at Old Trafford.

Ronaldo claimed his second and United's third of the night on the hour mark, but a perfect night for the Red Devils was soured by the 75th-minute dismissal of Darren Fletcher.

Online betting experts now make United clear favourites to win the final in Rome on May 27th.

All the pre-match optimism around the Emirates Stadium was undone when Kieran Gibbs slipped and allowed a hopeful Ronaldo cut-back to reach the surprised Park.

The busy South Korean took a touch before finding the back of the net from eight yards with a dinked finish over the diving Manuel Almunia.

The Spanish keeper was then to blame for the killer second goal which left Arsenal needing to score at least three times on the night.

Ronaldo won a cheap free-kick following a tussle with Robin van Persie 40 yards from goal. The Portuguese star then brushed himself off before firing in the long-range free-kick which beat Almunia to his left.

United were dominant at this stage and Ronaldo should have capitalised when he was left unmarked at a corner moments later only to glance an eight-yard header wide of the mark.

The second half was a similar tale as, although Arsenal had top scorer Robin van Persie back from injury alongside Emmanuel Adebayor in attack, they could not gain a foothold in the game.

United were happy to sit back and soak up the pressure with Fletcher, Anderson and Michael Carrick providing an impenetrable shield in front of the defence.

The warning was there for Arsenal though and a superb counter-attack resulted in United's third on the night.

Park and Rooney carved open an already stretched defence with a swift move and when the latter squared the ball to Ronaldo, the winger found the back of the net with a sliding finish from the edge of the penalty area.

However, 15 minutes from time Fletcher he slid in to knock the ball away from Cesc Fabregas with a superbly-timed tackle only for the referee to award a penalty.

United's bemusement then turned to dismay when Fletcher was shown a straight red card to rule him out of the final.

Van Persie converted the spot-kick high to Edwin van der Sar's left, but by then the game was over and United's dream of becoming the first team to successfully defend the Champions League trophy remains alive.

At tennis' Italian Open, Serena Williams suffered a shock second-round defeat at the hands of Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, losing 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

In cricket's IPL, there were wins for the Rajasthan Royals and the Delhi Daredevils, with the latter regaining top spot in the qualifying table by thrashing the Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets.

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