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Nemanja Vidic argues he ‘never feared’ to play against ‘fantastic player’ during legendary Man Utd spell

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Nemanja Vidic has made his stance perfectly clear about one of the opponents that he encountered during his remarkable playing spell at Manchester United.

The 44-year-old former Manchester United captain lifted five Premier League titles, a Champions League trophy and three League Cups during his time at Old Trafford.

Nemanja Vidic was a linchpin defensive influence for iconic former manager Sir Alex Ferguson after United signed him from Russian side Spartak Moscow in 2004.

The United legend spent eight seasons at the Premier League club and Vidic made 300 appearances for the Red Devils before his 2014 departure to Inter Milan.

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Nemanja Vidic arrives in the crowd to watch the Premier League match between Manchester United and Leicester City at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, on September 24, 2016.
Photo credit should read ANTHONY DEVLIN/AFP via Getty Images

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Man Utd legend Nemanja Vidic breaks his silence on his battles with Liverpool cult hero Fernando Torres

Nemanja Vidic is widely regarded as one of the best Premier League centre-backs of all time after his incredible partnership with Rio Ferdinand at Manchester United.

However, the former Serbia international’s Old Trafford spell has been plagued by the narrative around his encounters with former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.

Fernando Torres and Vidic had heated battles on the pitch during Liverpool and Man Utd matches, which led to myths around the Spaniard ‘tormenting’ him on the pitch.

Speaking to FourFourTwo magazine, Vidic has now brushed aside the noise made around the 42-year-old former Chelsea and Spain striker being a handful for him.

“I think sometimes the media will create different opinions about different things,” he said.

“I think Torres was a fantastic player, but I never feared playing against him. Liverpool was always the derby match, and the only thing people can say is, ‘Yeah, you had a few red cards against Liverpool.’”

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Nemanja Vidic explains what really happened in his encounters with Fernando Torres during Man Utd vs Liverpool matches

According to StatMuse, Torres only netted three times in three separate Liverpool matches when he came up against United legend Vidic on the pitch.

Vidic spotlighted that the number of times Torres faced United as a Liverpool player doesn’t add up to the myth around how many times he scored against them.

“But I think two or three of them were in the last minutes of the game, the 89th minute, so to be fair, it’s not something that affected the outcome of the match,” he continued.

“If you look at the games played against Torres, I think he scored a few goals, but if you look at the total games he played, it was not that many.”

Torres played against Man Utd six times in the Premier League as a Liverpool player before the World Cup winner moved to Chelsea in his 2011 blockbuster transfer.