Dream Debut 梦幻般的首次亮相

Manchester United moved back to the top of the Premier¹ League after defeating Aston Villa² in a five-goal thriller³ 进五个球的精彩比赛.

In a match that ebbed⁴ and flowed 涨潮落潮；你追我赶, with both sides alternately taking the upper hand 占上风, United finally emerged 3-2 winners thanks to a last-gasp goal 压场一球 by debutant 首次亮相的球员 Federico Macheda.

The 17-year-old substitute curled in a superb strike 超级进球 in injury time 伤时赛 to make his debut⁵ the stuff of dreams 梦想由此构成.

Indeed, the Italian striker said that scoring the winner on his debut 首场比赛 made it the best day of his life.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson praised his young goal hero, but also added a note of caution 提醒, saying, "It's important to keep his feet on the ground. He'll need to handle lots of publicity⁶ over the next few days."

By saying he has to keep his feet on the ground, Ferguson means that his player needs to remain professional and not get so excited that he loses control, especially as there will be a lot of attention from the media about him.

Reigning⁷ champions Manchester United had struggled of late 近期表现吃力, losing two games in a row 连续, and had dropped into second position 降到第二名 in the league behind Liverpool.

But after digging deep 竭尽全力, and finding inspiration 振作精神 from an untried teenager, United have leapfrogged 超越/跳跃 Liverpool at the top of the table.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson will no doubt be relieved with the result, and acknowledged that his side had not performed to their full ability in recent weeks.

He said, "We've had our blip. We had seven, eight players missing today, four or five of the very top team but you can see that these young players are prepared to go right to the very end."

A blip 短时的不振 is a short period in which things do not go well, and Ferguson will hope that United can now maintain their form 保持他们的状态 with eight matches remaining.

For defeated Villa manager Martin O'Neill, the result was disappointing, especially as his side dominated for periods of the game.

He said, "The defeat is a bitter pill to swallow because we came to Old Trafford and played so well.

"We will have to take this on the chin but we can definitely come back from this."

Villa boss used two phrases to sum up his disappointment: "a bitter pill to swallow", and "we'll have to take this on the chin".

When something is a bitter pill to swallow it means it is unpleasant but unavoidable.

When he says he'll have to "take it on the chin", he means that although the result was unpleasant, he'll have to accept it bravely and without complaining.

But although the result was disappointing it was not without a positive side.

O'Neill said, "We will gain confidence from this performance. That might sound crazy because we are in the results business - but we were terrific today."

By saying football clubs are in "the results business", he means that in football, no matter how well you play, getting a result is the most important thing.

But despite that, he thought the side played so terrifically 踢得如此精彩 that he has confidence they will get better results in the next few games.