Champions League goes from 1999 to 2004
Ivica Olic and Franck Ribéry celebrate after Bayern Munich scored the game-winner against Manchester United (AP)
It was 1999, in reverse at the Allianz Arena. Bayern Munich as well as Louis van Gaal were able to mildly avenge their losses to Manchester United 11 years ago. Remember, Van Gaal was the coach of Barcelona that same year and the Red Devils eliminated the Blaugrana en route to their second European title.
In the first minute, Manchester United once again proved to everyone why they are a team that will never forgive their opponents' mistakes.
The masked man, Martín De Michelis slipped and Wayne Rooney scored his 34th goal of the season tapping a volley past Hans-Jörg Butt to open the scoring after only 84 seconds.
From that point on Alex Ferguson went to their 4-4-1-1 and allowed Bayern Munich to battle back in the match.
They took advantage of the spaces that the English champs allowed them. The Bavarian giants took the game to Manchester and kept going after the first goal that would give them some life once again.
An organized backline along with an inspired Edwin van der Sar helped United's road goal seem almost insurmountable until Franck Ribéry's freekick in the 77th minute that deflected off of Wayne Rooney's foot and into the back of the net.
In the end, the team that worked harder ended up winning and Ivica Olic's goal in the 92nd minute was a tribute to that persistent attitude. After what seemed to be another subdued attack and the match looked to end up being a draw; the Croatian international dashed into the box and took the ball away from Patrice Evra. He would coldly beat van der Sar for the eventual game-winner.
To make matters worse for Sir Alex, Wayne Rooney would injure his ankle and air raid sirens sounded all over English football as this injury could end up being the most talked about in the British Isles since David Beckham broke his foot back in 2002.
Meanwhile the two best teams of the past three years in France faced off and the match at the Stade Gerland lived up to the hype.
Lyon take foothold in French encounter
Meanwhile Lyon and Bordeaux would duke it out in order to become the first team since Monaco to reach the Champions League semifinals.
Lisandro López and Michel Bastos gave Diego Maradona and Dunga more of a headache after his performance in Lyon's 3-1 win over Bordeaux. The former Racing man scored a brace and was a man in the box constantly being a threat to Cédric Carrasso's goal.
Marouane Chamakh equalized in the 14th minute when he headed home a beautiful cross past Hugo Lloris, who would become one of the stars of the match as he made spectacular save after spectacular save in order to keep "The Kids" in the game.
This was not the case for Bordeaux's defense, who let them down with very basic mistakes. Case and point, in the 32nd minute Brazilian international Michel Bastos would take advantage of a misplayed ball by Benoit Trémoulinas and he would drill the ball to Carrasso's back post for the eventual game-winner.
Lisandro would make it 3-1 on a penalty kick. They would now take this advantage to Stade Chaban Delmas and play try to reach the semis of Europe's most important club competition for the first time ever.
Related Articles
- Guardian: Wayne Rooney injury caps bleak night for Manchester United at Bayern
- AP: Olic lifts Bayern over Manchester
- ESPN: Van Gaal: "Van der Sar not a natural goalkeeper"
