SWANSEA CITY DEFEATED Manchester United 2-1 for the third successive meeting as Louis van Gaal’s side’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season ground to a halt.
United went ahead through Juan Mata early in the second half at the Liberty Stadium, but Andre Ayew equalised in the 61st minute and then set up Bafetimbi Gomis for the winner five minutes later.
Van Gaal had lost 2-1 at home to Swansea in his first game as United manager last season and having also seen his team go down by the same scoreline in the return fixture, he was given more reason to curse Garry Monk’s side on the occasion of his 50th game in English football.
Swansea climbed to fourth place in the table, a point above United and four below early leaders Manchester City, having started a top-flight campaign with four unbeaten games for the first time in their history.
With Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger restored to the team after starting Wednesday’s 4-0 Champions League play-off win over Club Brugge on the bench, United started purposefully, but Swansea enjoyed a purple patch mid-way through the first half.
Gomis sliced off target, Gylfi Sigurdsson shot inches wide from Jonjo Shelvey’s cleverly disguised free-kick and Gomis then prodded a shot against the post after wriggling into the box from the right.
They were encouraging signs for a team bereft of the livewire Jefferson Montero due to injury, but three minutes into the second half they fell behind.
Luke Shaw was given space to motor down the United left and after his cross passed between Wayne Rooney and Neil Taylor at the near post, Mata ghosted in behind Swansea captain Ashley Williams to slam home.
Swansea goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski had to save from both his own team-mate Williams and Mata as United looked to press home their advantage, but a tactical switch saw the hosts turn the game around in just five minutes.
Ki Sung-yueng replaced Wayne Routledge, bolstering Swansea’s midfield, and three minutes later Sigurdsson crossed from the right for Ayew to beat Sergio Romero with a downward header.
Five minutes later Ayew turned provider with an exquisite, outside-of-the-foot pass from wide on the right, but Romero should have done better than allow Gomis’s tame shot to trickle beneath him.
It was Gomis’s fourth goal of the campaign (and ninth in 10 league games), Ayew having earlier claimed his third.
Rooney, scorer of a hat-trick against Bruges, looked poised to equalise in the 88th minute, only for Williams to produce a crucial last-ditch recovery tackle.
Iconic yes, but not exactly aesthetic
@Gareth Ward: ah I dunno, I like it. I was there last year for a game and it has that big football feel about it that you don’t get from modern stadia. That being said, the proposals for the new ground look unreal
@Gareth Ward: moron . One of the greatest stadiums in the world. I have been in most of the famous ones except the azteca. Abosolute philistine to suggest this is not one of the greatest .
@Shane Gill: i want to get to an inter game b4 they bulldoze it.are tickets hard got? My 2nd fav stadium ever since cameroon v argentina italia 90!!
@Nigel Delaney: didn’t have any trouble with tickets. Went to an AC game v Sampdoria and got tickets from the ticket centre at the ground the day of the game.
@Shane Gill: thanks lad.Trish is mad to get to Milan too.win win!!
Fabulous stadium.
Was there a while ago. It’s definitely seen better days.
Amazing that two internationally renowned teams playing the same sport can use common sense and share a stadium.
The Aviva and Croke Park are underutilized assets, money going/gone towards paying the debts could have been put into grassroots.
At least the Bertie Bowl wasn’t built
@Goban Saor: By “sharing” you mean the professional rugby and soccer guys want to use the facilities of their more successful amateur counterparts.
@Goban Saor: They are only still doing it now due to Italian politics making it really difficult for many teams to get approval to build stadiums in Italy. A lot of the stadium are owned by City Council who don’t want to lose out on rent and have empty stadium.
@Seamus Cummins: That’s problem in a nutshell. Napoli have had same issues with renovating Stadio San Paolo. Naples Municipal Council owns the stadium and doesn’t want to pay for upgrades.