At the very least, Watford’s American defender, Jay DeMerit, says his club won’t make the same mistakes AS Roma made in the Champions League quarterfinal at Old Trafford on Tuesday. The 7-1 result will forever be a stain on the Roma record books unlikely to be repeated in any competition for a very long time.
Whereas Roma traveled to Old Trafford and sat back, DeMerit says Watford is heading into Saturday’s FA Cup semifinal with every intention of winning it. “Hopefully they got all their goals out of them — that was my first reaction!” DeMerit said of the 7-1 thrashing, adding that the key is to disrupt Man United’s rhythm — something Roma was never able to do on Tuesday.
But how do you deal with Cristiano Ronaldo, the player many feel is currently best in the world? “You try to neutralize him as much as possible,” DeMerit said. “But he is one of those guys like Michael Jordan used to be — you can’t stop him so you just have to try to contain him and that is what we have to do — disrupt his rhythm, not give him time on the ball so he can run at people. He is best when he is running at people and hopefully we will get in his face and not let him do that.”