VIDEO: Manchester United – The butterfly effect

Further to our ‘What If?’ article last week that looked at Van Nistelrooy’s penalty miss against Arsenal and the effect it had on their unbeaten run, I present this.

Last year I read an article on a site of football’s top 10 ‘what ifs’ and it reinforces the idea that football is a game of moments. Inevitably when a game finishes or a situation pans out you think back on those moments and their potential impact.

Who here can say that haven’t pondered what would have happened last season if Rooney hadn’t got that ankle injury? Or what would have happened had we signed Ronaldinho instead of that spotty Portuguese boy? What if Macheda wasn’t deemed ready for the first team and he didn’t score that goal against Villa?

An interesting one for me was our game against Porto in ’04. I remember Scholes having a perfectly good goal disallowed before Costinha’s late goal put a Porto team lead by Jose Mourinho through to the quarter final. Porto would go on to win the competition and as a result the world was ‘blessed’ with “The Special One” but what if Scholes goal wasn’t disallowed and Porto didn’t go on to win the Champions League?

This video looks back at some great what if moments in football and uniquely gives a view of what may have occurred if they turned out the other way.

Enjoy!