Best Performance Against Your Team [Archive]

Lewis

14-01-2016, 06:44 PM

This was floated in the Football365 (what am I doing still reading that?) mailbox, and I thought it would make a decent thread. So without thinking too hard about it:

Individual: Fat Ronaldo when he scored three goals at Old Trafford in the second leg of that 2003 Champions' League tie.

Team: Real Madrid in the first leg of that tie. Barcelona have given United the run-around in a couple of finals (I was going to say 'recently', but fucking hell five/seven years ago), but United still had about fifteen minutes and chances in each game. By contrast this was a farce. United completely BOTTLED IT, and Madrid stopped bothering just after half-time.

Yevrah

14-01-2016, 06:45 PM

Barca 4 Man Utd 0 back in 94 was a pretty comprehensive molesting IIRC.

Lewis

14-01-2016, 06:48 PM

I was six and never saw it.

Yevrah

14-01-2016, 06:49 PM

And from the same year, that final has to be up there for Barca themselves.

Adamski

14-01-2016, 06:58 PM

Mendieta for Valencia against us at Ibrox in the champions league circa 1999 is still the best performance I've ever seen on the flesh.

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 06:59 PM

When we led Barcelona 3-1 going into the second leg in 2000 and then lost 5-1 after extra time, that felt like the most 'yeah, we're not doing anything about this' performance I can remember. That might have just been us being shit though as I can't remember the game in detail (looking back, actually, the goal times don't really chime with my memory of the game). Our more recent disgraces have been more to do with us collapsing or some game-raising twats doing us in.

Actually, Atletico Madrid's two legs against us in the semi-final of 2014 were pretty good.

Bayern were ace in the 2012 final as well, I thought :cool:

Lee

14-01-2016, 07:01 PM

And from the same year, that final has to be up there for Barca themselves.

Yep, that Milan performance was quite something.

Probably the best individual performance against us was by Juninho at Filbert Street when he just ran the game as Middlesbrough beat us 3-1. We played them again a couple of weeks later in the League Cup final in which Pontus Kaamark man-marked Juninho the whole match as a result of that performance. We ended up winning the cup after a replay. Denis Bergkamp's famous hattrick early in the next season deserves a shout too. And Patrick Berger towards the beginning of 96/97. All this shows is when some of my first football memories were formed, really.

I can't really say for team performances. Not that there haven't been good ones against us, just that it's hard to say if they've been because we've been shit. There's been a lot of that over the years.

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 07:02 PM

Individual performance against us would be that time Falcao (RIP) tore us a new one in the Super Cup, or maybe Jason Puncheon and all the otherwise disappointing Everton strikers.

Gray Fox

14-01-2016, 07:07 PM

Team wise, I think the time when Arsenal rocked up at Anfield and beat us 4-1 and then 6-3 in a short space of time would be what springs to mind. The former being the one I'd go for.

In terms of player I'm struggling with one out and out performance. De Gea at Old Trafford last season was outstanding. Arshavin scoring 4 also can't be forgotten.

Samadini

14-01-2016, 07:14 PM

Same as Lee, I feel the team one only really works when you've supported a good team, Newcastle have been twatted so many times over the years it's hard to really pick one thrashing out as being better than the others.

One of the go-to player performances against Newcastle will always be Drogba in the UEFA Cup semi final 2nd leg in 04. He was utterly awesome, ripped the whole team apart.

Bob Sacamano

14-01-2016, 07:47 PM

Individual performance against us would be that time Falcao (RIP) tore us a new one in the Super Cup, or maybe Jason Puncheon and all the otherwise disappointing Everton strikers.

Straqualursi spings to mind.

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 07:56 PM

It's a fine long tradition stretching all the way back to Danny Cadamarteri. We've got them this weekend. Arouna Koné, this is your time.

Kikó

14-01-2016, 09:23 PM

Barca 4 Man Utd 0 back in 94 was a pretty comprehensive molesting IIRC.

That is one of my earliest united memories. One of the few games I could watch on TV at the time. We did have to drop half the decent players due to the foreign players rule.

I think Lewis nailed it off the top of my head for games outplayed. Arsenal this year for a recent example.

Smiffy

14-01-2016, 09:26 PM

I'm sure it was a Uefa Cup match but I remember Valencia giving us a bit of a schooling. I'm sure Barcelona too in a 1-0 win at Anfield?

Domestically you'd probably say a number of league games against Mourinho first stint Chelsea.

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 09:36 PM

That Barcelona one in the UEFA Cup at Anfield was unreal. They weren't even great in general then, in fact it may have been that season when they were in the bottom half at Christmas.

Vim

14-01-2016, 09:41 PM

Bayern completely bested us in the quarter finals, both legs, a few years ago. Knew they'd go on to win it, a solid Juve side got completely and utterly dominated.

Raoul Duke

14-01-2016, 09:41 PM

Barca in the CL Finals, and Real at home when Fat Ronaldo got a hat trick.

Toby

14-01-2016, 09:47 PM

The Merse

14-01-2016, 09:54 PM

Best individual performance must be The Drog on multiple occasions. The big cunt. Or possibly Robbie Fowler's hat trick in 94.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AT5wAGxcDE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bowtKlXfi0w

Or Effenberg for Borussia Monchengladbach in '96. That sticks out too.

Best team performance is likely to be the Barcelona game in 2010. Messi was incredible. Might actually be the best individual performance against us, but for some reason Fowler and Drog come to mind that bit easier... Anyway...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTqlFe5VQcs

I was tempted to go for the 5-1 hammering that Bayern gave us this year as it stood out first. We weren't great, obviously, but I cannot imagine anyone but Barca might've lived with them that night.

http://www.premierleague.com/content/premierleague/en-gb/news/features/on-this-day-30-dec-1995-arsenal-1-wimbledon-3.html

In the flesh it would be when we lost 3-1 to Wimbledon at home, as it's the best of a very small number of losses I've been present for.

ItalAussie

14-01-2016, 10:27 PM

Roy Keane in the 1999 Champions League semifinal second leg.

I hated the player, and I hated his team. But he single-handedly pulled United back from the brink and dragged them into the final. One of the all-time great performances against any side, ever. :moop:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GTMH0AGT1qE/hqdefault.jpg

Giggles

14-01-2016, 10:32 PM

Who are the three Arsenal players in that shot with Messi? It's only 5 or 6 years ago and I recognise none of them.

Raoul Duke

14-01-2016, 10:33 PM

Denilson, Silvestre and Vermaelen.

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 10:34 PM

Vermaelen and Denilson on the right, but I'm struggling with the guy on the ground. It's not Silvestre is it?

Giggles

14-01-2016, 10:35 PM

I still can't see Silvestre even now that I know it's him.

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 10:37 PM

It looks like a combination of Pascal Cygan and Attilio Lombardo.

Kikó

14-01-2016, 10:48 PM

niko_cee

14-01-2016, 10:55 PM

Best individual performance is probably a coin toss between Fatman Viduka and Andrei fucking Arshavin.

Madrid last year was a bit of a bumming. Didn't see the Stoke match.

:sick:

Manc

14-01-2016, 10:59 PM

People forgot, but Kaka tore Liverpool a new one in the 05 final. He was playing on a different level that night. The pass for the third is still one of the best I've ever seen.

simon

14-01-2016, 11:06 PM

Wesley Sneijder absolutely bopped us at home in 2010. He was frightening in that game and in that season generally.

We were a very good side around that time as well.

ScousePig

14-01-2016, 11:13 PM

Of the games I've seen live, Chelsea beating us 3-1 at our place in 2009 takes some beating. Deco and friends just took us apart.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8202329.stm

Fulop was in goal :( Chelsea's 18 is laughable.

ScousePig

14-01-2016, 11:19 PM

It feels rare that teams ever play their best against Chelsea but the game that comes to mind as being a thoroughly deserved and comprehensive victory is this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9180668.stm

Good call. We rode our luck at times, but once we took control we absolutely deserved the 3-0 win. Asamoah Gyan could have been so, so good.

Toby

14-01-2016, 11:20 PM

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 11:20 PM

We were fucking dirty that season. Far, far superior to any of Mourinho's teams. Just didn't quite happen the year before or afterwards.

ScousePig

14-01-2016, 11:23 PM

That was the same season as the 7-2 at Stamford Bridge too.

I wasn't there so can't really comment. I was there the previous season (I think it was) when you hammered us 5-0 at your place and vowed never to go again. You weren't as good in that game as the 1-3 at the Stadium of Light.

Jimmy Floyd

14-01-2016, 11:26 PM

I went quite a lot that year and I remember going to see us play Allardyce's Blackburn (no mugs away to the big boys), we went 5-0 up after an hour and Big Sam went absolutely mental trying to get his boys to waste time and run the clock down after that because he was shit scared of them going down by double figures.

Last game of the season we put 8 past Wigan.

Toby

14-01-2016, 11:30 PM

I wasn't there so can't really comment. I was there the previous season (I think it was) when you hammered us 5-0 at your place and vowed never to go again. You weren't as good in that game as the 1-3 at the Stadium of Light.

Oh I didn't mean it as an attempt to one up you, just that Chelsea had some seriously good games (especially in an attacking sense) that season.

I remember we had a thread a while back about the "worst champions" of the Premier League era and being completely baffled that the majority choice was that side. I've never seen a Chelsea team like it before or since.

CJay

14-01-2016, 11:46 PM

Oh I didn't mean it as an attempt to one up you, just that Chelsea had some seriously good games (especially in an attacking sense) that season.

I remember we had a thread a while back about the "worst champions" of the Premier League era and being completely baffled that the majority choice was that side. I've never seen a Chelsea team like it before or since.

Was it? :cab: That side was brilliant.