Saviour Scholes strikes late to save United’s blushes

Olympiakos 2 Man Utd 3

Laurent Blanc and Juan Sebastian Veron had struck either side of the break as United dominated against opponents whose only previous home Champions League defeat came at the Red Devils’ hands 12 months’ ago.

After an hour of dominance, the game seemed dead, even to the pragmatic Old Trafford chief, who withdrew David Beckham and Ryan Giggs for greater tests ahead. Yet, spurred on by substitute Lambros Choutos, the Greeks mounted an unlikely comeback, the 22-year-old striker lashing past Fabien Barthez 20 minutes from time before skipper Predrag Djordjevic brought his team level with a superb drive from the edge of the area.

Visibly agitated in the dug-out, Ferguson must have feared what was to come, but Paul Scholes arrived as a late saviour, taking advantage of the final chapter in an abysmal book of goalkeeping blunders by Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos to grab the winner which will ensure a pleasant journey home.

‘‘We never make it easy for ourselves,’’ said a relieved Ferguson afterwards. ‘‘We were superb until we had that period where we lost the two goals through carelessness.”

United went into the game knowing a point would take them into the second group stage with a couple of games remaining. However, that didn’t appear to be sufficient reason for omitting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who may have taken a knock in training last night, hence the rare sight of Diego Forlan starting.

Olympiakos had gone into the game in disarray, having sacked their coach since the 4-0 mauling at Old Trafford and seen their own league campaign suspended following the collapse of the domestic television rights-holders.

Their chances weren’t helped by the dismal goalkeeping performance of Eleftheropoulos, who looked unconvincing from the start and it was a mistake by the Olympiakos keeper which created the opportunity for Blanc to net the opener.

Beckham’s flighted free-kick was disappearing harmlessly beyond the dead ball line until Eleftheropoulos stuck out a lame hand and touched it behind himself. From the far side, Giggs dropped the ball neatly into the danger area, which the home defenders had thoughtfully cleared, allowing Blanc the space to power home a header from six yards.

Forlan might have doubled United’s lead shortly after the break but struck his shot weakly at Eleftheropoulos. A second wasn’t long in coming though, Veron drifting past two defenders, exchanging passes with Giggs before rocketing a low drive to the corner.

It should really have been the end for Olympiakos, whose heads were hanging at the enormity of the task they faced. The lead was certainly wide enough for Ferguson to withdraw Giggs and Beckham after a job seemingly well done.

Only half-time substitute Lambros Choutos truly believed in the unlikely salvage mission.

As Blanc had done earlier, the 22-year-old striker gave notice of his intentions with a mazy run through the United defence which ended with Fabien Barthez making his first save of the night.

However, on his next burst forward, Choutos shoved his way past Phil Neville, evaded John O’Shea’s lunging leg and slotted his shot into the corner.

Suddenly the crowd, quiet and subdued for much of the evening, were awake. Djordjevic spectacularly brought them level and all hell broke loose.

For a while, United were on the ropes. Slowly, they regained their composure though and their ginger-haired sorcerer had one more trick up his sleeve.

OLYMPIAKOS: Eleftheropoulos, Anatolakis, Antzas, Venetidis, Patsatzoglou, Giannakopoulos (Mavrogenidis 87), Zetterberg (Ofori Quaye 71), Karembeu, Djordjevic, Giovanni (Choutos 46), Dracena.

MAN UTD: Barthez, Gary Neville, Blanc, O’Shea, Silvestre, Beckham (Chadwick 63), Phil Neville, Veron (Richardson 87), Giggs (Fortune 63), Scholes, Forlan.