Bayern Munich sealed the fate of Manchester United for two seasons (the ongoing one and the next one) with a 17-minute second half onslaught that saw the 2009 champions crashing out of the tournament. The tie ended with the German giants getting past the finishing line with a scoreline of 3-1 in the second, with an aggregate of 4-2 over the two legs.
The final score however doesn’t show the challenge put up by Manchester United. In fact when they took the lead in the 57th minute through an excellent finish from 30-yards by Patrice Evra, for few seconds it seemed that United was on course of causing an upset. But the ManU fans were brought down to the hard reality when Mario Mandzukic scored within 90 seconds. Bayern was looking much more dangerous than what they were over the last 167 minutes in the tie. And they got their rewards when Thomas Mueller scored the all important second goal for Bayern in the 69th minute. Arjen Robben added a third one for the home side in the 76th minute to seal their berth in the semis.
It could have been much different had Wayne Rooney not missed a sitter just few minutes after Mueller’s goal. But that’s the way things panned out for the Red Devils. Even the third goal from Robben found the back of the net after it had a taken a deflection from Nemanja Vidic. But it can be said that Bayern was the deserving winner. Although United employed a defensive tactics, still their dominance could be seen right from the very beginning. Somehow they failed to score, that might be because of some good defending from United, or it was the striker’s fault, whatever might be the reason. But they managed to score when it mattered most. And that’s why they are looking very dangerous and the favourite to retain the title.
