TEAM STATISTICS
The Busby Babe |
United |
Swansea |
Shots (on target) |
28 (7) | 13 (6) |
Total Passes |
515 | 326 |
Passing Accuracy |
89% | 81% |
Ball Possession |
60% | 40% |
Tackles won |
26 | 20 |
Interceptions |
18 | 21 |
Fouls |
12 | 6 |
Corners |
16 | 3 |
Offsides |
0 | 0 |
MUFC PLAYER STATISTICS
* David de Gea (goalkeeper): 8/9 passing (89%), 6 saves, 0 goals conceded
* Chris Smalling (right-center-back): 44/49 passing (90%), 6/7 long balls, 0 tackles, interceptions, 7 clearances, 1 shot blocked, 2 fouls
* Rio Ferdinand (left-center-back | substituted off 88'): 45/49 passing (92%), 4/4 long balls, 2 tackles, 2 interceptions, 3 clearances, 1 shot blocked, 0 fouls
* Phil Jones (right-back): 59/68 passing (87%), 1/6 crosses, 0/0 long balls, 3 tackles, 3 interceptions, 3 clearances, 0 shots blocked, 1 foul
* Patrice Evra (left-back): 41/47 passing (87%), 1/2 crosses, 0/0 long balls, 10 tackles, 1 interception, 7 clearances, 0 shots blocked, 1 foul
* Michael Carrick (central-midfield): 82/88 passing (93%), 4 key passes, 1/1 crosses, 7/7 long balls, 1/1 through balls, 3 tackles, 0 interceptions, 2 shots (0 on target), 1 assist
* Paul Scholes (central-midfield | substituted off 68'): 48/50 passing (96%), 2 key passes, 0/0 crosses, 6/6 long balls, 0/0 through balls, 2 tackles, 1 interception, 2 shots (1 on target), 1 goal
* Antonio Valencia (right-winger): 59/66 passing (89%), 4 key passes, 3/9 crosses, 2/3 long balls, 0/0 through balls, 1 successful dribble, 0 fouls won, 2 tackles, 1 interception, 2 shots (0 on target)
* Ashley Young (left-winger): 44/51 passing (86%), 6 key passes, 5/23 crossing, 2/3 long balls, 0/0 through balls, 3 successful dribbles, 2 fouls won, 2 tackles, 4 interceptions, 3 shots (1 on target), 1 goal
* Wayne Rooney (striker | substituted off 79'): 32/43 passing (74%), 3 key passes, 1/5 crosses, 2/2 long balls, 0/1 through balls, 1 successful dribble, 1 foul won, 7 shots (1 on target)
* Javier Hernandez (striker): 17/23 passing (74%), 2 key passes, 0/1 crosses, 2/2 long balls, 0/0 through balls, 0 successful dribbles, 0 fouls won, 4 shots (0 on target)
* Tom Cleverley (central-midfield | substituted on 68'): 21/21 passing (100%), 0 key passes, 0/1 crosses, 2/2 long balls, 0/0 through balls, 0 tackles, 1 interception, 1 shot (1 on target)
* Dimitar Berbatov (striker | substituted on 79'): 10/12 passing (83%), 2 key passes, 0/0 crosses, 0/0 long balls, 1/1 through balls, 0 successful dribbles, 0 fouls won, 0 shots
* Rafael (right-back | substituted on 88'): 3/3 passes (100%), 0/1 crosses, 1/1 long balls, 0/0 through balls, 1 tackle, 0 interceptions, 0 shots blocked, 0 fouls
POST-MATCH QUOTES
Sir Alex Ferguson | MUFC manager (courtesy of MUTV)
(On the title race...) "You have to think there’s still hope. QPR have to go to City and survive. To stay up in the Premier League they need a point. Of course, City are favourites – there’s no doubt about it. The crowd will be behind them, they’ll be into the referee as they were against us. They’ll be doing their best to win the game. QPR are fighting for their lives, though, and you have to think a team in that position has a chance. I just wish Sparky [former Reds striker and current Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Hughes] was playing!"
(On his side's performance...) "It could have been one of these days where their heads were down a little bit. But they played with good professionalism and they enjoyed it. They did well and showed good enthusiasm. I'm satisfied with the attitude of the players. It’s a decent result for us."
(On the desire for many goals so that the goal differential advantage for City could be reduced...) "I think the optimism from the fans – even from ourselves – to score a lot of goals was perhaps a wee bit too optimistic. But we had a lot of chances, we played a lot of terrific football in the first half in particular."
(On the 2nd half...) "In the second half Swansea slowed the game down and made it difficult for us to get the ball back. They’re good at that. That’s their main defence: they keep the ball and they keep it for long periods and it’s hard to get it back off of them. They deepened and passed the ball back to their goalkeeper, who’s a fantastic user of the ball. They killed the game that way. If we’d scored an early goal in the second half we would have fired the crowd up, fired ourselves up and made them doubt themselves a bit. But we didn’t get that early goal and the game petered out."
(On Rio coming off...) "Rio got a bit of a spasm in his groin. Chris Smalling has a little groin strain, too. But I don’t think it’s serious. I think they’ll both be available next week."
Michael Carrick | MUFC midfielder (courtesy of MUTV)
(On Manchester City's victory over Newcastle occurring just prior to kickoff...) "We watched it anyway before the game. You can't hide from it. It's only natural that we were hoping they slip up but obviously City have won the game so we had to get our heads on our game and, credit to the boys, we kept believing and we still believe anything can happen. It's not over. We'll keep believing and take it until next week."
(On United's performance...) "We created a number of opportunies. We wanted to start quickly and get on the scoresheet quickly and build from there. We did that but didn't take our chances, although we'll take a win that gives us an opportunity to take it to next week. It would've been a big ask to score six, seven or eight goals. We tried but we couldn't in the end so we'll take the three points. In an ideal world [we'd have scored more] and we could've been three or four up at half-time so who knows after that? That was the aim but it didn't quite work out."
(On needing QPR to get a result versus City next weekend...) "We can still hope. It's up to them now. We've got to go there [to the Stadium of Light] and win. It's still a tough game and it's not a given to go to Sunderland and win. We have to stay focused on that and hope QPR do what they've got to do and help us out. It's the natural thing to look back at certain things during the season and the 'what ifs' in the last three weeks but we've got to focus on our game. We're still in it, have still got a fighting chance. Until that's over, we'll keep fighting and keep believing. All our focus and energy is going into the last game."