The knock-out stages of the UEFA
Champions League are always met with great anticipation, even more so this
season as the round of 16 kicked off with the small matter of Manchester United
versus Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu. When the tie was drawn in late
December, Sir Alex was quick to dub it the tie of the round and he wasn’t wrong
as a pulsating encounter ensued. With both teams lining up in the fashionable
4-2-3-1 formation it looked, on paper at least, that we were in for a tight
game. However what became clear as the early stages of the game progressed was
that Sir Alex was operating an astute 6-4 formation with a very flat back four
and two incredibly deep holding midfielders in Phil Jones and Michael Carrick,
with an attacking midfield three of Wayne Rooney, Shinji Kagawa and Danny
Welbeck with Robin Van Persie spearheading the attack. What had been forged
here was the perfect counter attacking system, one which Mourinho had used
several times in Inter Milan’s victorious UCL campaign in 2010. |
| De Gea |
The game
started with Madrid’s Angel Di Maria evading the challenges of Evra and Carrick
to flash a shot just wide of the right hand post. Then on his first appearance
against the club he left in 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo bamboozled Rafael down the United
right and his cut back was met via a deflection off Ferdinand by Fabio Coentrao
whose curling shot was magnificently tipped onto the post by David De Gea. All
the early pressure was coming from the home side, so it was a shock to
essentially everyone when United managed to get into Madrid’s half and win a
corner. Rooney expertly delivered an in swinging corner which was met by the
head of Danny Welbeck and against the run of play United had taken the lead,
but more importantly they had a crucial away goal.
 |
| Ronny |
Madrid responded instantaneously
as Di Maria again found space and sent in a low drive which De Gea tipped round
the post, Ronaldo then smashed the wall with a free kick but with the rebound
he unleashed a rasping volley which flashed past the post. Then that man again
Di Maria, curled a superb ball into the united box which was only bettered by
Ronaldo’s emphatic header which beat the despairing dive of De Gea and tied the
game up at one all. Both sides ended the first half with chances, firstly
Kagawa and Van Persie linked up to cross for Welbeck whose improvised finish
fell wide of the goal. At the other end Ozil latched onto a long ball and
forced De Gea into a save at his near post.
 |
| RVP goes close |
The second half saw more of the
same from Madrid with Ronaldo and Di Maria again going close, controversy then
struck when Evra was seemingly brought down by the last man Varane but nothing
was given to United’s dismay. Coentrao was then denied by an unorthodox save
from De Gea, who remarkably got his leg up to prevent the Portuguese full back
converting from Khedira’s centre. United finished the game with a flurry of
chances, all falling to and being spurned by their expert marksman Robin Van
Persie. He firstly smashed the bar with a right foot shot after being slipped
in by Rooney, he then evaded the Madrid offside trap to beautifully bring the
ball down from his chest only to scuff his finish and see Xabi Alonso clear off
the line. His final chance saw his intelligent first touch allowing him to test
the fingertips of Diego Lopez who tipped his shot around the post.
 |
| Together again |
Jose
Mourinho was his usual self in the post-match interview saying, “We had a big
chance when Fabio Coentrao hit the post. The first chance they had, they
scored. In the second half, they played for the result. Now is our time to go
Old Trafford. 1-1 is not a bad result and everything is open and we can score
more than one goal”. Sir Alex praised the performance of David De Gea and also
commented on Ronaldo’s performance, “I'm proud to see how he has flourished. I
don't know how you describe a goal like that. I blamed Patrice Evra for not
challenging him until I saw the replay. Then I felt a bit stupid”.
 |
| Theo vs Van Buyten |
The game
that caught Europe’s imagination in the second round of knockout games was that
of Bayern Munich’s trip to Arsenal. The Gunners and especially Arsene Wenger
were under pressure to put in a performance after being dumped out of the F.A
Cup by Blackburn. After resisting the urge for most of the season Wenger
started Theo Walcott up front on his own, possibly hoping to take advantage of
35 year old Daniel Van Buytens lack of pace. Bayern had left mainstays from
last season’s UCL campaign Arjen Robben and Mario Gomez on the bench.
 |
| Tony Kroos - World class |
From the
off, the gulf in class was startling and as early as the 6th minute
Bayern were ahead after poor play from Arteta and Koscielny gave possession to
the German league leaders, this allowed Ribery to find Muller on the right and
his ball unintentionally made its way Kroos who hit a stinging half volley past
Szczesny. After more Bayern possession a second followed on the 20 minute mark,
the ever impressive Kroos curled over a corner and after breaking away from a
‘tree like’ Mertesacker, Van Buyten flicked a header towards goal which could only
be parried by Szczesny and was pounced upon by Thomas Muller.
As Bayern
continued to look slick in possession, Arsenal were bereft of ideas with
Walcott looking isolated up front and Ramsey continuously giving the ball away and
as half time came, boos rang around the Emirates. The second half remarkably
saw no changes for the Gunners, but despite this Lukas Podolski dragged them
back into the game when a Wilshere corner evaded everyone allowing the German
to head into an empty net. For twenty minutes and to everyone’s surprise
Arsenal were back in the game and matching Munich, they nearly equalised when
Walcott expertly controlled a long ball out wide and instantly crossed for
Giroud, whose snap shot was parried by Neuer. Alas normality was then restored
when Mandzukic held off Koscielny and laid the ball off for sub Robben, who
spotted the overlap of Lahm and the Bayern captain, drove in a low cross which
looped up off Mandzukic and into the net.
 |
| It's all gone Pete Tong |
Bayern had three away goals and the
tie was virtually over, the mood in the Emirates was summed up when the cameras
panned to DJ Pete Tong as if to confirm that it had indeed, ‘Gone wrong’.
Almost on the verge of tears Jack Wilshere admitted that the Gunners started
slowly and that the blame did not fall at Wenger’s door. Following the result
some people have argued that German football could be overtaking the English
game, I am of the opinion that it is more down to the fact that Arsenal and
especially Arsene Wenger are and have been for several years on the
decline.
