DAVID MOYES WAS in bullish form as he took his Manchester United side to Athens to take on the Greek champions. Would his confidence be justified? Get in contact in the usual ways: email adrian@thescore.ie, find us on Facebook or tweet @thescore_ie.
Full-time: Olympiakos 2 Man Utd 0
Roy Keane is on ITV as per usual these Champions League nights and the Corkman just told Adrian Chiles that he hopes we see the ‘real Manchester United’ tonight. Let’s see.
David Moyes and his newly-signed striker Wayne ’300k-a-week’ Rooney have been talking up the Premier League champions’ chances of making a stab at this competition and no-one seems particularly worried about facing the Greek champions; but the pressure will be yet more intense on the Old Trafford boss if United don’t claim a quarter-final spot.
Here’s the team he’s trusted to get the job done in the first leg:
De Gea; Smalling, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Cleverley, Carrick; Valencia, Rooney, Young; Van Persie.
Subs: Lindegaard, Giggs, Hernandez, Welbeck, Kagawa, Buttner, Fellaini.
Keano’s described it as a strong team; what do you think?
Unusually, there’s just the one European Cup game to keep us off the streets tonight as Dortmund have already clocked off for the night. They played Zenit St Petersburg in Russia earlier.
David Moyes says he expects the ‘adventurous’ Olympiakos front four to be a real threat with plenty of crosses coming from the wingers. The teams are in the tunnel.
One-cap Ireland man Owen Coyle is on co-commentary with Trevor ‘Custard Creams’ Welsh in Athens on TV3. Is that the former Bolton boss’s first go at it for the station?
As I type, Olympiakos show up the deficiencies in United’s midfield once again but Vidic manages to pull off a last-ditch block to deny a goal. United are all over the place with almost 10 minutes on the clock.
After a shaky start, United have found their sea legs here. They’ve enjoyed a period of pressure — soundtracked by the home fans’ whistles — which almost culminated in a clear-cut chance. Ashley Young got his head up and tried to thread a ball through for RVP but the Dutch striker couldn’t take advantage.
“On a scale of Highbury to the Goodyear Blimp, how much are you enjoying this camera angle?” @FootballCliches asks on Twitter. I do have headache all of a sudden.
There’s 25 minutes gone and this hasn’t been great so far, to be honest. Here’s the stats from TV3:
Rooney just pings a pass straight out of play. Which sums up the first 35 minutes neatly.
GOAL! Olympiakos 1 Manchester United 0 A heavily-deflected goal has broken the deadlock after 38 minutes or so. Maniatis took a speculative shot and his team-mate Dominguez flicked it past De Gea. Pressure.
Michel is a name familiar to many Irish football fans of a certain vintage. Here he is scoring an own goal against Jackie’s Army some time ago.
(via @evanfanning)
Half-time: United head in at the break a goal down and looking devoid of any imagination and threat going forward while their defence has been shaky in patches. What have you made of it?
Here’s that goal. Clever or lucky?
Keano’s really worked up here on the sidelines; the Ireland assistant is questioning the attitude, quality and workrate of the United XI. His voice is gone up a few octaves too.
As one United fan writes on Twitter: “Roy Keane isn’t angry, he’s just disappointed. (Also, he’s angry)”.
We’re five minutes into the second half it doesn’t look like the United players were particular energised by their manager’s advice at the break.
GOAL! Olympiakos 2 Man Utd 0, Campbell 55′
On-loan Arsenal player Joel Campbell took advantage of some poor play in the United midfield to drive at the static visiting defence and curl a lovely long range shot past the diving De Gea. They’re in trouble now.
This is a right shambles for the reigning champions of England. And David Moyes is attempting to make something happen — like an away goal — by sending on Shinji Kagawa for Anthony Valencia. Interesting.
Welbeck almost got on the end of an RVP cross but the Greek goalkeeper dove to punch it clear. That’s the first time the visitors have threatened… since the first half?
82 minutes: Robin van Persie misses the chance of the night. The Dutch striker takes two neat touches to get a cross out from under his feet in the box but blazes over from 10 feet or so. Sums it up.
Let’s have a bit of a vote. Do you think United will still make the Champions League quarter-finals?
Poll Results:
David Moyes will face lots more questions about the direction he’s bringing these players later. A lot of them don’t look like they’re playing for the new boss.
Full-time: The referee blows his whistle to bring the action to an end as United are camped out in the Olympiakos penalty area. But unlike so many occasions during the previous coach’s tenure, there’s no crucial goal in Fergie-time. Now we wait for Roy.
What did you make of it?
