United dreams quickly dashed
With their challenge for a place in the Premier League’s top four all but over, David Moyes’s side needed to win the Champions League to book their place in next season’s competition. And they almost took a huge stride towards lifting the trophy here, taking the lead against Bayern through Patrice Evra’s emphatic opener in the second half, which put them 2-1 ahead on aggregate.
But the home side, the current holders of the trophy, responded less than half a minute later with the first of three rapid-fire goals to end United’s resistance and almost certainly keep them out of the Champions League next season for the first time since 1995.
Conceding so quickly after scoring was hard to take for Moyes, who said: “I’ve a team of experienced players and it’s the sort of thing you learn as a schoolboy.”
But make no mistake, this was a gallant effort from Moyes’ side, who held their nerve brilliantly in the first half but finally crumpled in the second against a Bayern side who dispatched them at this stage of the competition in 2010.
Arjen Robben did the damage back then, and he was at it again last night, punctuating a sparkling display by setting up the second and scoring the third.
It’s a bitter blow to Wayne Rooney, who started in attack here despite the chipped bone in his toe.
There were barely 15 minutes on the clock and Robben had already tried his luck three times from range with that left foot of his. In many ways, his direct and single-minded approach is the antithesis of what Guardiola is doing at Bayern — but neither of them seem to care.
The hosts had pressed from the outset but were stopped in their tracks in the 17th minute when Rooney, released down the left, clipped a cross into the centre. The ball evaded Danny Welbeck but not Antonio Valencia, who stabbed home from close range. The linesman, however, ensured it stayed goalless with an instant flag.
Normal service soon resumed, with Frank Ribery following the lead of his right-wing counterpart Robben by letting fly from 25 yards — only for the side-netting to thwart him. Toni Kroos also had a go from range.
When the sides left the pitch at half-time, Bayern had 70% of the possession but United wouldn’t have minded. In fact, the colossal Nemanja Vidic and his back-four colleagues — not to mention the untested David de Gea — would have been pleased with their opening stanza, with Robben the only live threat.
There were 55 minutes on the clock before any keeper was called into action. And, although Manuel Neuer easily held Shinji Kagawa’s 25-yard effort, it was indicative of United’s more expansive start to the second half.
And so it proved in the 57th minute when Evra opened the scoring. Welbeck’s cross in from the right curved away from the bodies in the centre and out towards Evra who, without breaking stride, drove an outrageous strike in off the underside of the bar from the edge of the area.
But the French left-back had barely finished celebrating when Mandzukic beat him at the back post to send a diving header into De Gea’s bottom corner to restore parity just 22 seconds after restarting following Evra’s rocket.
Just eight minutes later, Bayern finally took the lead. Again Ribery and Robben played their part, with the former’s cross floating all the way to the former at the back post, who slid a low ball in to Thomas Muller to turn the ball home between Vidic’s legs.
The Serbian defender also played his part in Bayern’s third, deflecting the ball past De Gea from Robben’s shot. But it was more trickery from the flying Dutchman, who skipped beyond Evra and then Vidic before hitting his effort, which really made the difference.
Before that strike, United knew that just one more goal would have put them into the semi-final on away goals, but it was Robben who, just like in 2010, ensured it was the Germans who progressed.
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