Valencia suffers suspected broken ankle
Antonio Valencia suffered a suspected broken ankle last night as Manchester United's Champions League campaign got off to a faltering start in the Battle of Britain.
The United midfielder went down in sickening fashion, clutching his left ankle after falling awkwardly just before the hour and needed oxygen before being carried off on a stretcher.
Sir Alex Ferguson said: "It looks like a dislocation and a fracture. It's a bad one. It looks like he will be out for a long time."
Valencia's horrific injury cast a depressing pall over the Old Trafford stalemate, in which Ferguson's calculated gamble backfired after he made wholesale changes to his team.
Fergie made 10 changes from the side that drew at Everton last Saturday but not even the return of troubled striker Wayne Rooney could inspire them to victory in their Group C opener.
United laboured against the Scottish champions, whose resilience in handling everything their opponents threw at them was rewarded with a deserved point.
Fergie gave first-team stars including Paul Scholes, Nemanja Vidic, Dimitar Berbatov and Nani the night off, but the decision proved costly and may have repercussions for United's chances of reaching the knockout stage.
Rooney made his first appearance for United following revelations he slept with prostitutes and Rio Ferdinand made his long-awaited comeback following the knee injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.
But neither were able to make the difference as Rangers made a mockery of the gulf in class and resources between themselves and United by holding out for a draw.
United and Rangers took a point apiece, but they had nothing else in common at the full-time whistle. In the opening game of Group C in the Champions League, this was a result to treasure for the visitors. Despite being pinned back, they contained the Old Trafford side with little difficulty to record a marvellous result that defied all expectation.
Rangers are entitled to ignore those who complained of boredom when they left their opponents so exasperated that the substitute Ryan Giggs was booked for dissent. The fielding of a much-altered United line-up turned out to be a miscalculation. This night was to disturb the hosts, too, when Antonio Valencia was carried off with a severe ankle injury.
Collapsing under a seemingly harmless challenge from Kirk Broadfoot, Valencia suffered a badly fractured ankle and was given oxygen as he left the field. Television coverage did not replay the incident and it looked likely to be his last act of a short season.
Rangers' rigorous work was admirable and the odds against them were never allowed to appear as steep as anticipated.
Despite all the pre-match tact, Sir Alex Ferguson's selection showed that this fixture had not dominated his thoughts entirely. Darren Fletcher was the one player retained from the starting line-up that had played at Goodison on Saturday. Wayne Rooney was recalled after being left in seclusion at the weekend and Rio Ferdinand was fit to make his first appearance since May, but Rangers may also have wondered initially whether it was really in their interests to meet a side with many other individuals presumably seeking to make their mark.
This, for instance, was Chris Smalling's debut after the summer move from Fulham and the Mexico striker Javier Hernández had his invitation to add to the good impression made in the Community Shield. Whatever the aspirations of the men selected, United lacked the smoothness of a long-established line-up. Walter Smith, with scant means to vary his team selection, could at least see a group well-acquainted with one another.
Despite utilising a five-man defence, Rangers had a desire to push forward when possible, even if those occasions were intermittent. The approach may not have caused havoc, but it did prevent United from laying siege. On the eve of the match, Ferguson had wryly expressed a curiosity about the schemes his friend and former colleague Smith would devise. Rangers' approach to the contest did seem to keep United slightly off-balance.
There was a hint of frustration when, in the 35th minute, a low drive from Darron Gibson went narrowly wide. Visiting fans who had come determined to enjoy themselves come what may also had cause in that period to be happy. The home crowd was not stricken by apprehension but neither had they been entertained. When necessary, Rangers sat deep and United, despite being well-acquainted with that approach, did not deal with it convincingly in the first-half.
Regardless of the inclusion of wingers in Valencia and Park Ji-sung, Ferguson's side had great trouble in turning the Rangers defence and mostly shuffled passes in front of it. When the home crowd occasionally chanted Rooney's name it was an entreaty to make the difference rather a celebration of his efforts prior.
Rangers, as anticipated, usually had 10 men behind the ball, but Ferguson's team did not have sufficient imagination nor an insistent rhythm to tease apart the Rangers throng. There really had been no cause for the visitors' goalkeeper Allan McGregor to waste time and so receive a yellow card. It provoked reservations about the depth of United's vaunted means. The excuse that this was an anticlimactic occasion for Ferguson's men would have been brushed aside.
For all the camaraderie with Smith and the affinity he has with the opposition as a former Rangers player, the United manager can only have rebuked his players at half-time. An entirely different display had been expected from them.
No immediate transformation occurred. That testified to the fact that Rangers' concentration had not been broken by the interval and it may also have reflected a degree of familiarity to the scene. United, after all, have long experience of shows of endurance by visitors that normally falter before the close.
Any slight unease would have lain with the passivity of Rooney. He had been granted the weekend off, but the disturbances to his private life and, presumably, his state of mind are not overcome so easily. United's own equilibrium was hard to maintain here when they lost Valencia.
Play resumed with Giggs on as a substitute, but there would have been a strong case for calling on the veteran's guile in any circumstances. Rangers' plan was still working perfectly and United, for all that they had hogged the ball, were being contained with the game entering its last 20 minutes. Rangers' discipline and calm had been impressive and the anticipated onslaught had proved very difficult to achieve.
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