Edwin van de Sar has surrendered his unbeatable status on Wednesday by conceding a goal against Manchester United and he has no one to blame but himself.

Van der Sar was well on the way to breaking the European shutout record of Belgian Danny Verlinden.

For that Van der Sar would have had to keep his goal clean until the 89th minute of last night's game.

But it all went wrong early on.

In the ninth minute of the game Van der Sar let go of a seemingly easy shot from Jonas.

The bouncing ball fell to the feet of Peter Lövenkrands who beat the Dutchman from close range.

It was the first time since 8 November 2008 that Van der Sar let in a goal.

On that day Samir Nasri of Arsenal scored two.

Van der Sar kept a clean sheet in 16 consecutive games and broke several records in the UK.

Against low ranked Newcastle breaking the record seemed possible, but the Magpies played what was perhaps their best game of the season.

Lövenkrands' goal didn't get them anywhere though, because Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov secured a 1-2 victory for United.

"The intellectualisation
of football has
always foundered
on a simple problem-
-the players. Doing
all your most
rewarding thinking
with your feet seems
to dull the philo-
sophical impulse.
Unless, of course,
you are Dutch.
According to legend,
Europeans played
a moronic, muscular
version of the world's
game, until Holland
proclaimed its vision
of total football in the
1974 World Cup,
and enlightenment
dawned."

From:
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football