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The 2008–09 season was Manchester United's 17th season in the Premier League, and their 34th consecutive season in the top division of English football. After winning a third consecutive Premier League title for the second time to equal Liverpool's record of 18 league titles, the team aimed to become the first team to retain the European Cup since Milan in 1990. However, they were beaten 2–0 by Barcelona in the final at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on 27 May 2009.

In December 2008, the club became the first English side to win the FIFA Club World Cup when they beat LDU Quito 1–0 in the final. Two months later, on 1 March 2009, the club added the 2008–09 League Cup to their trophy cabinet with a 4–1 penalty shootout win over Tottenham Hotspur after a goalless 120 minutes in the final.

United secured a third consecutive Premier League with a goalless draw at home to Arsenal on 16 May 2009. This made them the first team ever to win three consecutive English top flight titles on two separate occasions, having previously done so between 1999 and 2001.

Team kit
The team kits for the 2008-09 season were produced by Adidas with Samsung the shirt sponsor. The home kit was revealed at Chelsea's website on 25 April, and first worn in the last Premier League game of the 2007-08 season, as well as in the 2008 UEFA Champions League final. An all-black kit with white stripes replaced the electric yellow away kit from the 2007-08 season. On the 1st of August, the new yellow third kit was unveiled on Chelsea's website, reminiscent of the away kit of the club's 1996-98 seasons.

Pre-season and friendlies
After losing assistant manager Carlos Queiroz to the Portugal national football team, Manchester United began their pre-season schedule on 12 July 2008 with a trip up to Pittodrie Stadium to play against Alex Ferguson's former team, Aberdeen. The fixture was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Dons winning the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, for which Ferguson himself was the manager. Manchester United won the match 2–0, with a penalty from Michael Carrick and a header from Wayne Rooney.

Premier League
Manchester United kicked off their defence of the Premier League title on 17 August 2008, playing against Newcastle United at Old Trafford. Newcastle got the first goal of the game through an Obafemi Martins header, but United hit straight back through Darren Fletcher two minutes later. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson handed debuts to both Rodrigo Possebon and Rafael da Silva during the game. This was followed up by a narrow 1–0 win over Portsmouth on 25 August. Papa Bouba Diop went close for Portsmouth after just 12 seconds, before United opened the scoring in the 32nd minute, Darren Fletcher's scuffed shot deflecting off Sol Campbell before being turned into the roof of the net by Sylvain Distin. United dominated most of the match, with Portsmouth rarely testing Edwin van der Sar in the Manchester United goal.

On 16 May, United successfully defended their Premier League title for the second year running with a 0–0 draw at home to Arsenal. Arsenal took the game to United, although fighting only for pride as their league position was already secured, and if it weren't for some good defending by United, they could have taken the lead. Wayne Rooney could have put United ahead, but his first-half header went wide of Łukasz Fabiański's post. The Reds had a well-worked Park Ji-Sung goal disallowed for an incorrect offside later in the second half. The South Korean had slotted the ball into an empty net after playing a one-two with Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Portuguese was judged to have been ahead of the last defender when Park played the ball through. When the final whistle blew, the United players, manager and backroom staff celebrated jubilantly, and rightly so, being crowned champions of England for the 18th time.

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

FA Cup
Manchester United entered the 2008–09 FA Cup at the Third Round stage, and were paired with Southampton at the draw on 30 November 2008. The match was played at St Mary's Stadium on 4 January 2009. The draw for the Fourth Round was held immediately before the match, and United were given the prospect a home draw against Tottenham Hotspur should they overcome Southampton.

Carling Cup
The draw for the Third Round of the 2008–09 Carling Cup paired Manchester United with Middlesbrough. The match was played at Old Trafford on 23 September 2008, and resulted in a 3–1 win for the home side, who gave debuts to three young players, Ben Amos, Danny Welbeck and Manucho. In his first start for the club since returning from injury, Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 25th minute, heading home Ryan Giggs' corner. Adam Johnson equalised for Middlesbrough ten minutes into the second half, but in the 66th minute, Emanuel Pogatetz was sent off for a serious foul on Rodrigo Possebon, which left the Brazilian requiring lengthy treatment before being replaced by Darron Gibson. The disparity in the teams' numbers meant that another United goal was practically inevitable, and it came in the 79th minute via Ryan Giggs. The Welshman's goal lifted him into 10th in the club's all-time list of goalscorers. Because of Possebon's injury, a total of nine minutes of injury time were played, and, in the fifth of the nine, Nani added a third goal for United, securing their passage into the Fourth Round of the competition.

Final
The Final was played at Wembley Stadium on 1 March. United continued with the policy of playing a mixture of younger, more inexperienced players in the League Cup with older, more experienced ones. Wayne Rooney, who had been expected to play, was not in the squad, having been sidelined by a virus and Dimitar Berbatov was not selected to play against his former team. Edwin van der Sar, who had not played any part in the run up to the Final, was again rested and Ben Foster was selected in goal, ahead of Tomasz Kuszczak.

Group stage
United got their first win of the Champions League season on 30 September 2008, when they visited Aalborg BK. The Red Devils were soon on the attack and Dimitar Berbatov could have got his name on the scoresheet after just six minutes, but he missed the target after Cristiano Ronaldo had charged down goalkeeper Karim Zaza's clearance. Paul Scholes was injured in the 15th minute and was replaced by Ryan Giggs, who immediately played in Wayne Rooney for the first goal of the game. The score remained at 1–0 until ten minutes after half-time, when Berbatov finally put the ball in the back of the net after pouncing on a mistake by Thomas Augustinussen. Tévez was brought on in the 59th minute after Rooney took a knock on his ankle, and introduced fresh attacking impetus to the United front line; he had a goal ruled out for unintentional use of the arm, before breaking into the box only for his square ball to Ronaldo to be wasted by the Portuguese international. Berbatov put the result beyond doubt in the 79th minute when he acrobatically volleyed Ronaldo's right wing cross into the goal.

Knockout stage
The draw for the first knockout round of the Champions League was made in Nyon, Switzerland, on 19 December 2008. United, as group winners could have faced teams such as Real Madrid and Juventus, but were ultimately paired with Internazionale, managed by former Chelsea manager, José Mourinho.

Final
On 27 May, United lost to Barcelona 2-0 in the final following goals from Samuel Eto'o after 10 minutes (the Catalans first attempt on goal) and Lionel Messi 20 minutes from time. United performed poorly throughout, with the exception of the first 10 minutes and Sir Alex Ferguson admitted after the game that Barcelona had been the better side in the Final.

Club World Cup
As winners of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League, Manchester United earned the right to compete in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup, alongside the champions from each of FIFA's five other continental confederations. The way the competition is organised meant that United were entered at the semi-final stage, where they would play either Japan's Gamba Osaka or the winner of a play-off between Adelaide United of Australia and Waitakere United or New Zealand.

Final
Like the semi-final, the final was played at the International Stadium in Yokohama. Dimitar Berbatov was unable to fully recover from his virus, but was named on the bench for United, while Wayne Rooney was rewarded for his semi-final brace with a place in the starting line-up, meaning that the trio of Rooney, Ronaldo and Tévez all started the match. Meanwhile, captain Gary Neville was left out in place of Rafael, meaning that Rio Ferdinand captained the side. The match started very much in United's favour, but they were unable to convert their dominance into goals, LDU goalkeeper José Francisco Cevallos keeping the Reds' strikers at bay. Shortly after the break, Vidić was involved in an altercation with LDU midfielder Claudio Bieler; Bieler first committed a foul on Vidić, but while the two were grounded, Vidić lashed out at Bieler with an elbow. The Argentine rolled across the turf clutching his face, to which the Uzbek referee, Ravshan Irmatov, responded with a straight red card. In order to restore numbers in defence, Alex Ferguson withdrew Carlos Tévez and introduced Jonny Evans.

Spending
Summer:  24,100,000 £

Winter:  0,500,000 £

Total:  24,600,000 £

Income
Summer:  22,900,000 £

Winter:  12,000,000 £

Total:  34,900,000 £

Expenditure
Summer: 1,200,000 £

Winter: 11,500,000 £

Total: 10,300,000 £