15 March 2011 MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Hernandez 5, Hernandez 75)
MARSEILLE 1 (Brown 82 og)
Rooney turned on a Giggs centre and Hernandez lost the dreadful Heinze to tap in unmarked at the back post. Gignac blew a chance to score a quick equaliser, horribly volleying over and Diawara failed to punish appaling marking, heading Taiwo's cross wide of the left post. Remy was next to miss, again blowing a volley following a mistake by Smalling. A minute after Cheyrou missed another chance United doubled their lead. Giggs ran onto Valencia's disguised pass and centred for Hernandez to score a carbon copy of his first goal. Brown helped out Marseille by putting away one of the chances they created but a toothless Marseille couldn't find a second goal to send out this injury ravaged United side.
United look as poor in Europe as they have domestically. Taggart better hope for an easy draw i.e. Schalke or Spurs and the return to fitness of Vidic or Ferdinand.
Manchester United win 2-1 on aggregate. Attendance: 73,996
Assists: Rooney, Giggs, n/a
BAYERN MUNICH 2 (Gomez 21, Muller 31)
INTER 3 (Eto'o 4, Sneijder 63, Pandev 88)
Bayern's lame Dutch coach made a series of tactical blunders. The first was starting with Breno and Van Buyten in defence despite the great job done by Tymoschuk and Badstuber in the first leg. Right on queue Van Buyten lost his position when advancing to tackle Stankovic 35 yards from goal, Stankovic passed to Pandev and Eto'o ran between Pranjic and Breno onto the Macedonian's though ball and shot into the bottom corner. The mistakes continued. At the other end Julio Cesar forgot to catch the ball as Robben took aim with a typically explosive shot, Gomez hooked the rebound over his head as Julio Cesar helplessly watched it sail into an empty net. Nevertheless it was a great finish. Motta inadvertently touched a Robben pass onto Muller and he recovered from a heavy first touch to lob over Julio Cesar. A mistake by Ranocchia put Ribery one on one against Julio Cesar but the big game bottler, I can't remember the last time he did anything of note, took too long to pull the trigger and Julio Cesar managed to block. The Brazilian goalkeeper, who has looked a shadow of himself since picking up a back injury towards the end of last season, ran off his line for a Ribery cross but missed, Gomez got the feintest of touches, the ball rolled across goal and as Muller jumped in with a sliding tackle, Ranocchia kicked the ball against him and it rebouned off the left post. Ranocchia, who was having a nightmare, gave Robben a hospital pass in the box but the brittle wing wizard misscued horribly. Muller caught Lucio dribbling inside his box, Ribery ran away with the ball, played a lazy centre which took a double deflection before bouncing kindkly back to him and Cambiasso threw himself at the goalbound shot. Bayern should have been four goals to the good at half time.
On the hour mark Julio Cesar finally produced a spectaculr save to match Gomez' equally spectacualr volley. Coutinho, on for the ineffective Stankovic, played a pass to Eto'o on the right of the penalty box and he touched the ball back for the onrushing Sneidjer to fire past Kraft. With the scores tied 2-2 on the night and Bayern leading 3-2 on aggregate Van Gaal substituted Robben for Altintop. Now it was one way traffic. Pandev chested down a Sneijder cross and turned his marker but blazed his volley high over. Sneidjer was off target minutes later then saw his goalbound shot bounce to safety off Pandev. Eto'o battled Breno for a longball, wriggled free of the defender, ran across the box trying to work an angle for a shot before passing square to the onrushing Pandev and this time he managed to keep his shot down, but only just, as it tore into the roof of the net.
Inter had 3 shots on target to Bayern's 9. If Bayern hadn't already announced Van Gaal would be leaving at the end of the season this would have been a sackable offence.
3-3 on aggregate, Inter win on away goals. Attendance: 69,000
Assists: Pandev, n/a, n/a, Eto'o, Eto'o
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