The 2008 UEFA Super Cup was the 33rd

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

, a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

match played between the winners of the previous season's

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

competitions. The 2008 competition was contested by

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

of England, who won the

2007–08 UEFA Champions League The 2007–08 UEFA Champions League was the 16th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded in 1992, and the 53rd tournament overall. The final was played on 21 May 2008 at the L ...

, and

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, the winners of the 2007–08 UEFA Cup. The match was played on 29 August 2008 at the

Stade Louis II The Stade Louis II () is a stadium located in the Fontvieille district of Monaco. It serves primarily as a venue for football, being the home of AS Monaco and the Monaco national football team. The stadium is most notable for its distinctive n ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. Zenit won the match 2–1,

Pavel Pogrebnyak Pavel Viktorovich Pogrebnyak (russian: Па́вел Ви́кторович Погребня́к ; born 8 November 1983) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Born in Moscow, Pogrebnyak began his career at Spart ...

scoring just before half-time, before

Danny Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to the male name Daniel. It may refer to: People * Danny Altmann, British immunologist *Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer *Danny Baker (born 1957), English journal ...

doubled the Russians' lead just before the hour mark.

Nemanja Vidić Nemanja Vidić ( sr-Cyrl, Немања Видић, ; born 21 October 1981) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is best known for his time at Manchester United, was part of the Serbia national team, and ...

reduced the deficit to one goal in the 73rd minute, but it was not enough to wrest the trophy from Zenit's grasp, as they became the first Russian team to win the competition. The sending-off of

Paul Scholes Paul Scholes (born 16 November 1974) is an English football coach, pundit, former player, and co-owner of Salford City. He spent his entire professional playing career with Manchester United, for whom he scored over 150 goals in more than 700 ...

for handball in the 90th minute resulted in him missing Manchester United's opening game in their defence of the Champions League, a home tie against

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

. This was Zenit's first appearance in the competition, while Manchester United had appeared twice before, in 1991 and 1999; their first appearance finished in a 1–0 win over

Red Star Belgrade Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...

, while their most recent appearance was a 1–0 loss to

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, the last winners of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

to compete in the UEFA Super Cup.

Match

Summary

First half

The opening exchanges of the match were dominated by Zenit, counter-attacking down their right flank, exploiting the attack-minded

Patrice Evra Patrice Latyr Evra (; born 15 May 1981) is a French football coach and former professional player. Originally a forward, he primarily played as a left-back. Evra served as captain for both Manchester United and the France national team. His ...

. Both Konstantin Zyryanov and

Aleksandr Anyukov Aleksandr Gennadyevich Anyukov (russian: Александр Геннадьевич Анюков; born 28 September 1982) is a Russian association football coach and a former player, who played as a right-back. He is an assistant coach with FC Z ...

created opportunities on the right wing, only for

to miss the target from a promising position on both occasions.

also managed to break into the box from the right-hand by-line, only for

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and w ...

to block his low cross. Up at the other end, United had a couple of half-chances of their own as, first,

Carlos Tevez Carlos Alberto Tevez (; born 5 February 1984) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. A quick, tenacious, powerful, hard-working and dynamic forward in his prime, Tevez was capable of playing as a striker, as a winger ...

hit a weak shot into

Vyacheslav Malafeev Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Malafeev ( rus, Вячесла́в Алекса́ндрович Малафе́ев, p=vʲɪtɕɪˈslaf ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ məlɐˈfʲe(j)ɪf; born 4 March 1979) is a Russian football official and a former player ...

's arms before sprinting after a ball played up the right wing, just managing to keep it in, before breaking through one tackle into the box and squaring the ball to

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while ...

. However, the

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

striker's first touch was poor, and the delay meant that the chance had passed. Zenit's pressure began to mount and, with half-time approaching, they won a corner on the left-hand side. Alejandro Domínguez took an in-swinging corner.

Igor Denisov Igor Vladimirovich Denisov (russian: Игорь Владимирович Денисов; born 17 May 1984) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Denisov spent most of his career from 2002 to 2013 at his home ...

flicked the ball on at the near post, and it floated over

Edwin van der Sar Edwin van der Sar (; born 29 October 1970) is a Dutch football executive and former professional player who is currently the chief executive of AFC Ajax, with whom he began his senior playing career in the early 1990s; he is considered to be a m ...

for Pavel Pogrebnyak to head in on the line.

picked up a yellow card shortly after the game had restarted, but the half-time whistle soon followed and Zenit went in on top.

Second half

Andrey Arshavin Andrey Sergeyevich Arshavin (russian: Андрей Сергеевич Аршавин ; born 29 May 1981) is a Russian former professional footballer who played as a winger or midfielder. Arshavin began his career at Zenit Saint Petersburg in ...

, a target for

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

over the summer, came on as a substitute for Alejandro Domínguez at half-time, but it was Danny who made the breakthrough for the second goal on the hour mark. Picking up the ball just inside the United half, the United defence continued to back off from him and he broke into the box, firing a shot past Edwin van der Sar, who dived the wrong way. A Carlos Tevez effort came close to pulling a goal back for Manchester United, and sparked a period of sustained pressure for the European champions. As United began to get into full swing, the Zenit side struggled to cope and, after Tevez had been found in space in the box by Wayne Rooney, he pulled the ball back to

who stabbed the ball into the net from six yards out.

John O'Shea John Francis O'Shea (; born 30 April 1981) is an Irish professional football coach and former player. He was known for his versatility in playing several positions on either side of the pitch or the centre. Born in Waterford, O'Shea joined Man ...

Park Ji-sung Park Ji-sung (; ; born 30 March 1981) is a South Korean former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in the South Korean capital Seoul, Park is the most successful Asian player in football history, having won 19 trophies in ...

and Wayne Rooney all went close as the clock ran down, but it was Danny who went closest to getting another goal for Zenit, shooting over the bar with just Van der Sar to beat after picking up a through ball from Andrey Arshavin. With only a minute of normal time remaining, Wes Brown sent over a cross from the right wing. Paul Scholes rose to meet the ball, but, instead of heading the ball, he stuck out his right arm and punched the ball into the goal. The referee had no hesitation in showing Scholes a second yellow card and sending him off. The red card meant that Scholes would miss Manchester United's first Champions League game of the 2008–09 season, at home to

Details

Statistics

Sponsorship

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

brewers Carlsberg were the main sponsors of the event, and the Man of the Match award was officially called "Carlsberg Man of the Match".

References

External links

2008 UEFA Super Cup
at UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2008 Uefa Super Cup Super Cup

Uefa Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

UEFA Super Cup Super Cup 2008 Super Cup 2008 UEFA Super International club association football competitions hosted by Monaco August 2008 sports events in Europe