Manchester United show defiance in surprise draw with Bayern Munich

MANCHESTER // Fifteen years after Manchester United’s astonishing comeback in the 1999 Uefa Champions League final and Sir Alex Ferguson’s unforgettable, three-word reaction, there was another improbable tale involving Bayern Munich.

United drew. United, lowly, much-mocked, often embarrassed United held the mighty Bayern. Indeed, they led for eight heady minutes. Bastian Schweinsteiger scored the equaliser to deny David Moyes the finest result of his reign. As it was, he can reflect with pride on a night when United played with a spirit they have often lacked.

Pep Guardiola’s stylists are overwhelming favourites to progress in next week’s second leg, but this was not the thrashing many anticipated. Bayern may become the first team since 1990 to retain the European Cup while United are enduring their worst season in a quarter of a century but, if only in the scoreline, there was nothing to separate them.

The performances were opposites, Bayern’s characterised by dominance of the ball, fluency of movement and technical brilliance and United’s by a bloody-minded refusal to be beaten, personified by their warrior-captain.

This has been a season of indignities for Nemanja Vidic, sent off against Chelsea and Liverpool, dropped on occasions and exposed by younger, quicker opponents, but when Wayne Rooney placed his corner into the middle of the Bayern box the Serb, tumbling backwards, contrived to angle his header in at the far post. For once, he was the centre-back United will remember fondly when he goes to Inter Milan in the summer. It was vintage Vidic: defiant in one penalty area, decisive in another.

United could dream of a famous win. Then reality made an unwanted intervention. Rafinha crossed, the substitute Mario Mandzukic headed back across the box and Schweinsteiger lifted his shot into the roof of the net.

So Bayern, who have only been beaten twice in a year, extended their extraordinary run. Indeed, they threatened to chalk up yet another win when Arjen Robben shot narrowly wide.

Yet there was justice, too, in United’s draw. They had perhaps never been such underdogs at Old Trafford. In a quarter-final line-up con­­­taining arguably Europe’s seven best teams and the seventh best in England, United were the odd ones out – the rank outsiders.

But that seemed to galvanise them. After the capitulations against Liverpool and Manchester City, this was a sizeable step forward. They are a limited team, but they were not a lacklustre one.

Often overly cautious, Moyes was uncharacteristically bold from the start, fielding two strikers, playing 4-4-2 and committing to attack. United had the ball in the net in the third minute, even if it was not quite the ideal start: Danny Welbeck was penalised for a high boot before his half-volley flew past Manuel Neuer.

The challenge was sustaining the early pace and, predictably, Bayern began to dominate possession. United's secondary tactic was to try to catch the visitors on the counter-attack. It was a ploy that almost paid dividends. Ryan Giggs and Rooney combined to send the young Mancunian sprinting clear as his marker, Jerome Boateng, lost his footing. Then confidence got the better of Welbeck, he made the fateful decision to chip Neuer and saw the goalkeeper gather comfortably.

Nevertheless, the Englishman highlighted the contrast in styles, his raw physicality the antithesis of Bayern’s practised perfectionism. They passed and probed and Moyes had to bring Welbeck back into midfield left. Yet clear-cut chances were rarities for Bayern. On the half-hour, Robben’s dipping shot from distance drew a fine save from the diving David de Gea, but Neuer was busier than the Spaniard.

If referee Carlos Valasco Carballo harmed United by denying them an early goal, he helped them by sparing Antonio Valencia the second booking he merited for a studs-up challenge on David Alaba. Instead, the man to depart early was Schweinsteiger, who collected a second caution for a last-minute foul on Rooney. He, however, had already made his greatest contribution to deny United victory.

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