Manchester United kept their European dreams alive after they managed a 1-1 draw against reigning European Champions Bayern Munich at the Old Trafford in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final.
Bayern enjoyed a lion share of possession in the first half, with Manchester United looking to threat mostly on the counter.
Although Bayern continued to keep pressure on the final third, but they hardly kept goal keeper David de Gea busy.
Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery tried to engineer few clever moves,
with the Dutchman forced a magnificent save from the Spanish goal
keeper.
The best chance of the first half fell to the home side, when Rooney
scythed a through-pass to Danny Welbeck, who tried to dink it over
Manuel Neuer, but failed horribly in his audacious attempt.
The visitors created an early opportunity in the second half, when
Bastian Schweinsteiger found himself positioned inside the box, but the
German’s effort went way over the bar.
Manchester United manager David Moyes made a positive move in the second half by bringing on Shinji Kagawa, who made an instant impact.
Kagawa earned a corner after some good work in the flanks, and from
the resulting set piece, Nemanja Vidic gave Manchester United the lead
through a brilliant header, after the skipper found himself unmarked in
the box.
Minutes later, Robben started a dangerous move from the right side
and played the ball on the path of advancing Rafinha, who crossed it in
the Manchester United penalty box. Mario Mandzukic provided a brilliant
headed lay-off to Schweinsteiger, who finished with great aplomb and
restored parity.
The visitors threatened few minutes later with Robben once again
cutting inside and tried a curling effort, but this time, he couldn’t
keep the ball on target.
In the dying minutes of the match, Wayne Rooney
was fouled by goal scorer Schweinsteiger, who was already booked. The
Spanish referee had no other options rather to book him again and show
him the marching orders.
