Bayern Munich 2-1 Manchester United: The Daily Mirror match report
Published 23:23 30/03/10 By Martin Lipton
Revenge for Bayern, 11 years on.
Revenge for the Nou Camp, for the night that gave birth to a thousand Manchester United legends.
But while Sir Alex Ferguson and his side get the second chance to put things right that was denied Bayern in 1999, the prospect of doing it without Wayne Rooney makes the task so much harder.
Ferguson will not have been the only person crossing his fingers and hoping that the sight of Rooney down in agony while Ivica Olic slalomed through a disintegrating United defence was not a rerun of Stamford Bridge in April 2006.
Fabio Capello, too, will be desperate for the accurate fitness bulletin, wanting Fergie's upbeat assessment to be right.
But the stunning conclusion to an evening which started so perfectly for Rooney and United, in which the standard-bearers of English football looked like they could silence the Allianz Arena every time they countered, will have repercussions well beyond Munich.
It will be felt at Old Trafford on Saturday, when Chelsea will now have an extra spring in their step. It will be felt next Wednesday, too.
So much in command for the first half hour that it was barely a contest, United ended bedraggled and bereft, their much-vaunted back division ragged and ruptured.
That was a compliment to Bayern as much as a criticism of United, who will know that they wasted a glorious opportunity to put the tie to bed and now face a battle to the death at Old Trafford.
They have turned such deficits around before, of course, against Roma three years ago.
But then they had Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. Next week they will, in all probability, have neither.
Ferguson accepted his side only had themselves to blame, for ceding the initiative and the advantage they were handed before most of the players on the pitch had even touched the ball.
Van Gaal, even Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer, had warned of the danger posed by Rooney, that he was the man Bayern feared.
Yet while masked assassin Martin Demichelis decide to hand out an old-fashioned "reminder" to Nani when United spread wide to the corner flag virtually from kick-off, he forgot the basic demands of a defender seconds later.
Nani's free-kick looped into the air off Mark Van Bommel's head, Demichelis lost his footing and that, incredibly, left Rooney with the freedom of the entire six yard box to crash his volley into the roof of the net from no distance at all.
It was Rooney's 34th of this most stellar of seasons, his fifth in three Champions League knock-out games, and with Bayern all over the place, as Franck Ribery edged his way into the match, United could have killed the tie.
Nani wandered into the box but dragged wide, Rooney hit at keeper Hans-Jorg Butt from distance before, six minutes from the break, the key miss from a man who has transcended human fallibility in recent weeks.
Darren Fletcher did brilliantly to outstrip Philipp Lahm, his cross eluded the hapless Demichelis and Rooney had time to take a touch and pick his sot but shot straight at Butt.
It was an escape clause that Bayern took.
Even before the break, Olic had only needed to get a touch to Hamit Altintop's cross-shot, after Ribery's outrageous dummy carried him behind Gary Neville, to level the game and after the interval United, for all Rooney's foraging, never got going.
Ribery's influence grew as Edwin Van Der Sar stood resilient, repelling every advance on his goal.
The 39-year-old Dutchman belied his birth certificate as he made outstanding saves to thwart Olic, Thomas Muller, Altintop and Mark Van Bommel but even though Ferguson introduced Antonio Valencia and Dimitar Berbatov, hoping for a moment of inspiration, the cracks and creaks were beginning to show.
With 13 minutes to go, the pressure told. Neville reacted to a bad bounce by plucking the ball out of the air with his left hand and Ribery was always going to take the free-kick.
He hit it with pace but no great threat, only for the huge deflection off Rooney's heel to leave even Van Der Sar flat-footed.
United looked to respond, Nemanja Vidic shuddering the bar with a header from substitute Ryan Giggs' corner but now Bayern, with the weight of history behind them, were going for the jugular.
Gomes almost provided the goal with a run and shot beaten away by Van Der Sar but his real impact came in stoppage time, accidentally clashing with Rooney as he dribbled towards goal, with the England man down clutching his right ankle as the ball ran loose.
Patrice Evra was in control but dawdled and Olic pounced, bypassing Rio Ferdinand before finding the bottom corner.
A sickener for United, compounded by the sight of the stricken Rooney, boot off.
Fergie now knows how Ottmar Hitzfeld felt in Barcelona. The stats say United are favourites. But so were Chelsea against Inter, so were United against Porto in 2004. And, of course, they will have to do it without Rooney.
Fears for United and England as Rooney limps out of Champions League tie
