Bayern Munich 2 Manchester United 1
Rooney 2, Ribery 77, Olic 92
A shocking performance by Manchester United at the Allianz last night.
They were lucky not to lose 5-1.
Rooney’s last minute ankle injury could put him out of Chelsea and the second leg.
“I hope I’ve picked the right team – it was very hard to leave Valencia out, to be honest with you ” said Sir Alex to Sky’s Geoff Shreeves before the game.
“A very good mental victory for us, and I think it’s deserved,” said Louis van Gaal afterwards.
The stats said Bayern had 60% possession. It looked more than that. Bayern had 10 shots on target against United’s 4.
OK, managing the age balance in a football squad is very difficult. You can have moments when your senior players haven’t got the legs and the younger ones don’t know enough.
Sir Alex played 4-5-1 and the game went very flat when Rooney scored after 64 seconds.
Demichelis clattered Nani, the free-kick deflected across the box and the unmarked Rooney volleyed in from three yards after Demichelis slipped.
Then the game went flat because both sides were paralysed by such an early goal. It wasn’t in the script.
United sat back and ceded two thirds of the pitch to Bayern, who then dominated, missed chances, and worked hard to win the ball back in the United half.
Scholes was far too deep and United’s feeble midfield allowed Bayern to pass the ball neatly and roll forward and create more chances. That continued after the interval. Bayern were industrious and organised and everyone did his job and they kept the ball well. Demichelis was bringing the ball forward and spreading passes down the right wing, Van Bommel was carrying it 40 yards without being tackled.
With Bayern having 66% of the pitch, Sir Alex, the greatest manager of all time, decided to take the hard-grafting Park off and give them 80% of the pitch !
Taking Park and Carrick off, he brought on Berbatov and Valencia.
HE LEFT SCHOLES ON !!
He left Scholes on and that was mind-boggling. Why? To hit long passes to Rooney? Wayne was isolated and entirely unsupported when he did get the ball. The only support Rooney had was Park and the Korean was taken away.
The whole second half was a carnival of incompetence. Incredibly, Sir Alex had three players who don’t mark or tackle on the field at the same time : Scholes, Giggs and Berbatov. They were never going to get away with that !
Neville did OK apart from his handball, which gave Ribery a free-kick. Rooney jumped off the end of wall, the ball hit his leg and wrong-footed Van Der Sar for 1-1. It could be a while before we see the champions concede such a silly goal again. So it was 1-1 after 77 minutes.
Vidic bounced a header off the crossbar from a Ryan Giggs corner that was the Welshman’s first kick of the game.
Bayern still missed chances, Van der Sar made saves, Klose and Gomez came on, Gomez had a run and shot which VDS slapped away in the 90th minute.
The busy Olic had missed an early sitter but now he took the ball off the dithering Evra and waltzed past Ferdinand to bury a sweet left foot shot inside the near post in the 92nd minute. Opportunism from a striker who works as hard as Tevez.
Still, this 2-1 defeat gives United a chance in the second leg.
They will attack at Old Trafford. They will have to attack and Robben should be back for the second leg and that will make it very interesting. Man United are NOT a tactical team. They are a momentum team.
Sir Alex has always been fairly pragmatic. If he loses to Chelsea and Bayern, he will rebuild his team.
He can see that his old guard are past it and not enough kids have come through. Old players always play too deep because their legs have gone. Anderson had one good season and disappeared. Berbatov was a £32 million blunder. He needs an accurate Stefan Schwarz type in left midfield.