United win by 3-1 after a penalty shoot out
The FA Community Shield sponsored by McDonald's 2008
3pm, Sunday 10 August 2008
Wembley Stadium
Live on Setanta, highlights on ITV
Portsmouth midfielder Niko Kranjcar feels that despite defeat against Manchester United in The FA Community Shield, they can build on their performance at Wembley and take it into the new season.
The Fratton Park outfit managed to match United in a 0-0 stalemate, but were beaten 3-1 on penalties.
United will feel they should have won the match inside 90 minutes, but some resolute defending from Sylvain Distin and a number of decent saves from David James kept Pompey in the hunt until the final whistle.
Kranjcar now wants to build on this dogged performance in their first Premier League match of the season, against Chelsea next Sunday.
"We wanted to win The Community Shield, but there are still a lot of positives to take from the match," he said.
"We can still improve our game going forward, but not to lose after 90 minutes is good.
"We didn't create enough chances but it's always hard to create against Manchester United.
"They'll always be favourites and they'll always have the majority of possession but we can give anyone a game on our day and we showed that by not conceding.
"The important thing is to do well when the Premier League starts next week but we're looking good."
Teams
Manchester United
1 Edwin Van Der Sar, 2 Gary Neville (c) (6 Wes Brown, 67) 3 Patrice Evra, 5 Rio Ferdinand, 15 Nemanja Vidic, 24 Darren Fletcher, 18 Paul Scholes, 22 John O'Shea (16 Michael Carrick, 67) 17 Nani (Fraizer Campbell, 79) 11 Ryan Giggs, 32 Carlos Tevez
Substitutes
29 Tomasz Kuszczak, 23 Jonny Evans, 21 Rafael Da Silva, 34 Rodrigo Possebon
Portsmouth
1 David James, 23 Sol Campbell (c), 15 Sylvain Distin, 5 Glen Johnson, 6 Lassana Diarra, 19 Niko Kranjcar (17 John Utaka, 60), 30 Pedro Mendes (18 Arnold Mvuemba, 75) 8 Papa Boupa Diop, 7 Hermann Hreidarsson (4 Lauren, 79) 14 Jermain Defoe, 9 Peter Crouch
Substitutes
21 Jamie Ashdown, 26 Ben Sahar, 20 Martin Cranie, 32 Djimi Traore
Referee
Peter Walton (Northamptonshire FA)
Manchester United Red shirts, White shorts, White socks
Goalkeeper Yellow shirt, Black shorts, Yellow socks
Portsmouth Blue shirts, Blue shorts, Blue socks
Goalkeeper Grey shirt, Grey shorts, Grey socks
Officials
Referee Peter Walton (Northamptonshire FA)
Assistants David Richardson (West Riding FA) and Ian Gosling (Kent FA)
Fourth Official Andre Marriner (Birmingham FA)
Attendance: 84,808
