Champions League Recap: Olić, Ribéry lead Bayern over Rooney, United

Published by William | Filed under Champions League, Football (aka soccer)

Bayern celebrates Olic’s stoppage time winner while Wayne Rooney lies in pain.

Bayern Munich 2 – 1 Manchester United


Return Leg at Old Trafford: Wednesday, April 7th, 19:45 GMT – Odds | Stats


While Tuesday night couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for Manchester United, it couldn’t really have ended much worse either. The Red Devils head back to Old Trafford for the return leg in two weeks down 2-1 to Bayern Munich after Ivica Olić scored the game clinching goal two minutes into stoppage time thanks to an impressive, brute run by substitute Mario Gomez.


To make matters worse (much worse…), leading goal scorer Wayne Rooney went down seconds before Olić’s winner after turning his right ankle in attempt to deter Mario Gomez’s pursuit. The Wonderboy could only lay in pain and watch as Bayern celebrated the first leg victory. Now, along with the United faithful, all of England must be starting to sweat as Rooney’s fitness is now becoming a factor heading into this summer’s World Cup.


The problem is that they are simply relying too much on the Wonderboy to carry the load. It’s only a matter of time before he gets seriously injured and hopefully this little knock will serve as a wake up call for Ferguson, as well as England boss Fabio Capello.


I must admit though, this is quite a tough situation to handle for the bosses, especially considering the success Rooney has had this season. However, they must decide whether or not to deploy England’s favorite forward for United’s most important league fixture of the season this Saturday with Chelsea. Even if he is cleared to play by the trainers, can you possibly risk further complicating the injury with the World Cup looming in the shadows?


The fact is that if he is healthy, he will play. Simple as that. However, if by some terrible chance he does get seriously hurt, there will be an uproar in England. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen…

Rooney leaves Allianz Arena on crutches.

Game Recap:


1st Half:


Like I said, United couldn’t ask for a better start to the match as Rooney put in a deflected Nani free kick within the first 2 minutes of kickoff. From there, it seemed like the match was going to be exactly what many of us expected it to be. A rout. However, Bayern Munich managed to shake off the early nerves and started to put together some pretty decent attacks, which only seemed to improve throughout the match. The man who really seemed to decide he wasn’t going to let them go down without a fight was Franck Ribéry. The scrappy little Frenchman seems to have finally recovered from his array of injuries that have kept him on the bench for much of the season. With star midfielder Arjen Robben set to miss the match as a result of a groin pull over the weekend, the question remained who would fill the void left in his absence and clearly, Ribéry was the man for the job.


The first half attacking theme carried on all the way until the whistle with both teams going back and forth, taking shot after shot. Bayern, despite going into half down 1-0, were probably the more impressive team as they dominated possession 60%-40%, an area where Manchester United is predominantly known to excel. If it wasn’t for a truly unbelievable performance from veteran goal keeper Edwin Van der Sar, the scoreline could have been much different. That’s not to take anything away from United however. I was particularly impressed with Nani and Neville working together on the right side of the pitch both defensively and offensively. Nani in particular put out a pretty good performance today considering he has been known to be shaky at times. Both teams had ample chances at goal with Bayern shooting 7 times (2 on goal) versus United’s 8 shots (4 on target).

2nd Half:


Bayern came firing right out of the gate. Within a minute of kickoff, Ribéry made a nice run down the middle of the pitch, put in a nice little through ball to Olic only to have his hard shot saved by Van der Sar. This pretty much set the tone for the entire second half. Bayern managed to hold United to one shot in the second half while forcing Van der Sar to make 8 saves himself as well as putting 4 more shots wide. That’s alot of work for a 38 year old veteran. Bayern’s relentless attacking efforts finally paid off in the 76th when Franck Ribéry’s free kick deflected off Wayne Rooney’s back and into the net. United started to make some runs and nearly reclaimed the lead in the 84th when Nemanja Vidic put a header off the bar from a Nani corner. From there, Bayern retook control starting with a long shot save from Ribery. Shortly after in the 90th, substitute Mario Gomez made a fantastic run only to have his hard shot go straight into the hands of Van der Sar. After that, in the final minute of stoppage time, Gomez would make one more run that would lead the way for Olić’s winner.

Ribery led the way for Bayern all match long.

Men of the Match:


Franck Ribéry – Seems to have shaken off those injury woes as he led the attack down the flank all match long and scored the equalizer in the 76th.


Ivica Olić – Had 4 shots, all on target, including the go ahead in the 92nd.


Edwin Van der Sar – Made save after save all game long and had it not been for him, things could have been much worse.