Manchester United 3-2 Bayern Munich

Well i said that the three games we have just played would define our season and i'm afraid they probably have. There is still a chance we could win the league, Chelsea still have two hard away games left. But the three games have shown what we have all known really. We are not the side we were and our squad is not as good as we thought it was. Of course injuries haven't helped, but there is no way that Rooney would have been risked as he was last night, in previous seasons. You have to wonder whether Berbatov will be here next season after last night. Not just that a barely fit Rooney was picked ahead of him, but a clearly limping Rooney was kept on the pitch hobbling about whilst he twiddled his thumbs on the pitch.
I don't know what Fergies thinking was on in not picking any of the old guard of Scholes, Giggs and Neville, but we saw the up side and the down side of leaving them out last night. The up was that physically we coud match Bayern especially in the first half when we made Bayern look what they are, an average side with a couple of good players. The down was the sending off and our reaction to it, which wasn't the best.
What a start we had, almost as good as the first leg this time taking just three minutes to open the scoring as surprise starter Darron Gibson does what he does best letting fly with a right foot shot that gave the goalie no chance. I'm still not convinced he will make it at United, which is a pity because you would probably be talking about a midfielder getting you 10 plus goals a season. The front three were on fire, Nani was having one of his best games for us and Valencia was having a blinder. The inclusion of Rafael gave Valencia a boost as the Brazilian is at his best going forward and meant that at last Valencia had some support going forward on the right. And let's face it he hasn't ben getting that recently as Gary Neville's marauding overlapping days are well behind him now.
Four minutes later it became even more of a dream start as the two wide men combined to make it two. Valencia beat him his man superbly and his cross was deftly flicked home by Nani to make it 2-0. It was all United as Bayern struggled to get into the game. When Rafael was sent through on goal, with options to his right, it seemed we must be on for a third but he went for goal himself and put it just wide. He should have passed it but i would sooner a player that has that much self belief in himself than shy away from taking responsibility.
We could have payed for that though when Olic was put through, but Van Der Sar came out and smothered the effort bravely. With just five minutes left Valencia once again left his marker for dead and crossed it to the back post where Nani made no mistake to put us into a 3-0 lead. It seemed almost all over, but two minutes later reality bit as we conceded yet another soft goal. I have seen it again today and it just gets worse. Carrick's recent performances have been disastrous. His first two seasons when playing alongside Scholes were tremendous but when the onus is put on him it has to be said he doesn't rise to the occasion. If we had strength in depth in midfield he would be lucky to be still here next season. But we haven't much depth there, so i can't see Fergie letting him go. It wouldn't totally amaze me though.
So what had been a dream half was brought shuddering back to earth with the realisation that another German goal would send them through. Bayern started the second half better but hadn't really threatened when Rafael needlessly got himself sent off. As well as he played going forward yesterday he still worries me in defence. Both the twins are prone to grabbing shirts if a player goes past them and both have been sent off for it. It's a bit of a lame excuse blaming the Bayern players for getting him sent off. If it had happened the other way it would have been the United crowd baying for a red card for a Bayern player. I don't like seeing players shirt grabbing so i can't moan if a ref sends off a United player for doing it.
Ferguson's response was to withdraw the hobbling Rooney and replace him with O'Shea and put Nani up front. Nani played reasonably well up front, but Fergie obviously hasn't got much faith in Berbatov in not bringing him on then. Despite probably creating more chances then Bayern when we went down to ten men, i couldn't really see us holding out without conceding. Bayern kept the ball well but we made it easier for them by not keeping the ball well when we had it. Still it took a great shot to breach our rearguard as Robben his a superb volley to get the all important second goal. United threw on Giggs and Berbatov for the final ten minutes but we never really looked like we were going to threaten.
So that is the dream of three finals in a row gone. In the cold light of day we weren't good enough, but we were handed a great chance of third final in a row with the favourable draw we had. You never know what can happen in a one off match but i do know we are nowhere near Barca and are probably not as good a team as Inter at the moment either. Unless we find another Ronaldo and start to replace Giggs and Scholes, getting to quarter finals could be as good as it gets in the years to come.

Henry Winter's pretty fair match report
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/7564275/Manchester-United-3-Bayern-Munich-2-agg-4-4-Bayern-win-on-away-goals-match-report.html

Fergie isn't amused by the "typical" Germans.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/08/alex-ferguson-manchester-united-bayern-munich

David Pleat reckons with hindsight Fergie might wish he had been more positive when we had gone to ten men.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/08/manchester-united-bayern-munich-david-pleat

The inclusion of Rooney for last nights game was no risk, says Fergie.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/wayne-rooney/7566209/Wayne-Rooney-return-was-not-a-risk-insists-Manchester-United-manager-Alex-Ferguson.html

United sign Mexican forward, we must be going after the untapped Mexican market. It's hard not to be cynical with these clowns in charge. Hugo Sanchez was a top player so here's hoping we have found gem.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8609973.stm

Top coaches has been one of the reasons there are no English teams are left in the Champions league writes Matt Dickinson. Or no English team was good enough, for me. Chelsea were beaten by the better team, Arsenal were humiliated and we shot ourselves in the foot at home and away.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7091131.ece

Dan Roberts argues Brown should just tell the leading Business letter writers they were wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/dan-roberts-on-business-blog/2010/apr/08/gordon-brown-national-insurance

David Baddiel's new comedy gets no interest from Israel, looks like it could be a good film.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/ok-in-iran-shunned-in-israel-film-about-muslim-born-a-jew-1939607.html


Chemical brothers