Manchester United 3-2 Aston Villa: Macheda puts dagger in title rivals' hearts

The Theatre of Dreams lived up to its name for Federico Macheda yesterday.

The 17-year-old debutant's dramatic late wonder goal put United back in charge of the title race, but only those dedicated fans who subscribe to MUTV are likely to have heard of the young reserve.

This time last week, Macheda was scoring a hat-trick for United's secondstring at Newcastle, but he has long been tipped for the top by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Plucked from the Lazio youth set-up by United in September 2007, the Italian's 93rd-minute winner - a stunning curling shot after a sublime turn - was audacious and breathtaking in its execution.

But it was the timing and the context in which the goal was scored that made it so special.

Having hauled their way back onto level terms with 10 minutes to go after being outplayed by Villa, United staged the kind of dramatic finale on which their illustrious and romantic reputation has been built down the years.

When Macheda's shot curled into the net, Old Trafford went into meltdown, the manic scenes reminiscent of 16 years ago when Steve Bruce's two late goals all but sealed United's first title for 26 years.

On that occasion, Fergie and his then assistant Brian Kidd danced a jig of undiluted joy on the touchline.

The 67-year-old United boss may be too old to repeat those antics now, but his euphoria was no less evident as he hugged his staff. Yet for much of yesterday's game it looked as though United's title challenge had suffered a potentially fatal blow as they lurched towards a third successive Premier League defeat - the first time that had happened for eight years.

United went ahead through a wonderfully-taken 13thminute free-kick by Cristiano Ronaldo, but with seven firstteamers out - including Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Dimitar Berbatov and Paul Scholes - they lacked their usual fluency and allowed Villa back into the game.

With Ferdinand and Vidic missing, Gary Neville was handed his first start in two months and it showed as he was out-jumped by John Carew for Villa's 30th-minute equaliser and was switched to right-back to spare him further embarrassment.

But even in his favoured position there was no respite for Neville, the 34-year-old having no answer to the pace of Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor, who along with Gareth Barry and Carew ran United ragged.

And when Carew crossed for Agbonlahor to head Villa ahead in the 58th-minute, Old Trafford fell silent, unable to comprehend the prospect of a third straight defeat and handing the title race initiative to their fiercest rivals, Liverpool.

But no one does dramatic late comebacks like United, and after Ronaldo had levelled by drilling a low leftfoot shot through a crowded penalty area and beyond the reach of Brad Friedel, the stage was set for Macheda.

From his 61st-minute introduction Macheda had been a threat, his pace and physical presence giving Villa's tired defence a new problem to address.

And when Giggs threaded the ball through to him just inside the Villa area, Macheda turned Curtis Davies and wrapped his right foot around the ball, his hero status assured forever with that moment of inspiration.

Defeat was hard on Villa, who had dominated for much of the game. But United's legacy is built upon never giving up, and this may just have been the day they all but clinched another title.

Man Utd: Van der Sar 6, O'Shea 6, Neville 5, Evans 6, Evra 6, Carrick 7, Fletcher 7, Ronaldo 7, Giggs 6, Nani 5 (Macheda 61, 9); Tevez 6 (Welbeck 88).
Aston Villa: Friedel 6, L Young 6, Cuellar 6, Davies 6, Shorey 6, Milner 6 (Reo-Coker 76, 5), Barry 8, Petrov 7, A Young 6; Carew 7, Agbonlahor 7.
Attendance: 75,409
Ref: Mike Riley.

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