Spirit Won Us The Game

Dimitar Berbatov says United’s resilient team spirit pulled the Reds through on a tricky Tuesday night trip to Blackpool.

The Bulgarian bagged another two goals to take him to 20 for the season – including the all-important match-winner – but he says he always believed the Reds could come back from a two-goal deficit.

“We are a team that believes that no matter how bad the game might be for us – whether it’s 1-0 or 2-0 we are always – we are always confident that if we can score one then we can score more. That was the case today,” he told ESPN. “We fought like a team, especially in the second half. The first half was not so good for us and Blackpool played a good game, but in the second half we showed spirit and we won.”

United just didn’t perform in the first half, and Berbatov says the players felt somewhat fortunate only to be two goals down at the break. But everyone rallied together at half-time. “You come here and it’s not such a friendly ground and the pitch is not as good as back home at Old Trafford, so it’s a bit difficult sometimes because the ball is jumping around,” he said, explaining a lacklustre first 45 minutes. “Blackpool played a good game in the first half and scored some good goals – they could have scored more in the first half. But, lucky for us, it was only 2-0. In the dressing room at half-time we told ourselves, ‘we can do it, we can do it’. And we did.

“Yes [the substitutions changed the game]. Giggs’s experience, his crossing of the ball and his intelligence made a difference. Chicharito is always going for goal; the only thing in his mind is to score. He proved that today. I scored a good goal as well, two actually, but it was the team spirit that won the game.”