With Manchester United carrying a 2-0 lead into their Champions League semi-final second leg, Schalke were already all but out. The German side needed nothing short of a miracle but, with Chelsea in mind, Ferguson made nine changes to his side from the first leg with only Van Der Sar and Valencia staying put.
Much like the first leg, United looked in control but Schalke did pressurise their defence and mid-field a lot more. But Schalke's miracle was forthcoming and United took the lead after 26 minutes when Darron Gibson played a beautiful through ball into Valencia's path who slotted neatly through Neuer's legs. It was the young German keeper's most impressive night as United were 2-0 up five minutes later when Gibson fired a shot that hit Neuer's leg before bouncing in. Schalke did get a consolation ten minutes before half-time when United failed to deal with the ball before Jurado fired it into the top corner.
Although, Schalke's goal wasn't the biggest surprise of the night because after, many months of waiting, Anderson fired United 3-1 ahead with a nice swivel shot into the bottom corner after 72 minutes. As the saying goes; you wait for one and two come along at once, and that's exactly what happened as Berbatov played a square ball along the box for Anderson to tap into the empty net four minutes later. United win 4-1 on the night and 6-1 on aggregate to set up that Wembley final against Barcelona.
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