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Manchester United 5-0 Birmingham City
Match Reports, 17:15, January 22, 2011 , | No Comments
Dimitar Berbatov hit a hat-trick as Manchester United stretched their unbeaten run to 22 games with an easy 5-0 win over Birmingham.
Berbatov struck his third hat-trick of the season as United ran riot against a poor Blues side at Old Trafford.
Alex McLeish looked to have one eye on his side's Carling Cup semi-final second leg in midweek as he rested Sebastian Larsson, Craig Gardner and Cameron Jerome and his team were punished in only the second minute.
A Ryan Giggs corner was flicked on by John O'Shea and there was Berbatov to head home unmarked. It was nearly two after just five minutes as Ben Foster made a hash of a clearance and presented the ball straight to Wayne Rooney. He squared for Berbatov but his shot was saved by the legs of Foster.
United continued to come forward with a Giggs cross headed behind by Stephen Carr under pressure from Chris Smalling. Then Nani ran at Murphy and forced another corner as Birmingham threatened to buckle under the pressure.
As the half-hour mark passed it was 2-0 when Roger Johnson gifted possession to Anderson, who fed Rooney before he set Berbatov up for his and United's second. The Bulgarian still had a bit to do with three defenders in close quarters, but he worked space for a shot before firing low beyond Foster.
Then, just as it looked like the tempo of the game was dropping and Birmingham were going to head into the interval just two goals behind, United scored a third and the contest was well and truly over.
The 45 minutes were up and stoppage time being played when Berbatov and Rooney cleverly exchanged passes before the ball was squared low for Giggs to fire first time into the roof of the net.
The second half proved to be more of the same from the home side as they threatened to run riot against McLeish's side.
Just two minutes into the second half and Rooney inexplicably missed with a header from close range following a lovely cross from Nani. It was harder for the Englishman to miss than score but his header went off target.
Five minutes later it was 4-0 with Berbatov completing his third hat-trick of the season. Van der Sar's long clearance was brought down by Rooney. He found Giggs who crossed low and there was Berbatov to finish off the move off the underside of the bar.
Nani added a fifth for United in the 76th minute when he cut in from the right before curling a low effort left-footed into the corner, but for all of their possession that was the end of the goals.
The result leaves Birmingham perilously close to the foot of the table and in desperate need of an improvement in their performances.
For United, however, they move two points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table and extend their unbeaten run to 22 games.
Critics have said that they are not good enough to remain unbeaten until the end of the season, but many more results and performances like this and Sir Alex Ferguson's men will surely go on to claim a record-breaking 19th league title in May.
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