Manchester United takes on Bayern Munich today (2:45pm, FSE/FSN) while French rivals Lyon and Bordeaux clash (2:45pm, FSC) in today's two UEFA Champion League quarterfinal first-leg matches.
Wayne Rooney is back in the fold after missing Manchester United's league match at the weekend, so the defending English champions will be at full strength when they take on a Bayern Munich team that will be without Arjen Robben or Bastian Schweinsteiger. Both midfielders are injured for today's match in Germany.
Lyon, led by Jean Maxoun and Jeremy Toulalan, will look to upset Bordeaux, led by Yoan Gourcouff and Marouane Chamakh, in what should be a tense encounter in Lyon.
I will be providing live commentary on today's Manchester United-Bayern Munich match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below (comments on the Lyon/Bordeaux match are also welcome).
Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump).
————-
FINAL– And it's Bayern Munich with the 2-1 comeback victory. Shades of the 1999 Champions League final, when Manchester United scored two late goals to win the title.
The more worrisome news for Manchester United than the loss is Wayne Rooney, who limped off after rolling his right ankle. Could he miss the crucial match vs. Chelsea, or worse yet, have a serious foot injury? We will find out soon enough.
That's all for me. Thanks for following along. Feel free to share your post-game thoughts in the comments section below.
————-
92nd Minute– Olic steals the ball from Patrice Evra in the area and races in for a clutch goal.
Rooney is limping off. UH-OH. Not a good sign.
————-
92nd Minute– GOAL BAYERN MUNICH!!!!! WOW, Ivica Olic scores a LATE winner. WOW. Bayern 2, United 1.
————-
90th Minute– WOW, SAVE VAN DER SAR, stops a late shot from Gomez that was definitely goal-bound.
————-
90th Minute– Whoa, Munich comes close with a dangerous ball into the area. United gets very lucky.
————-
88th Minute– Rooney gets the yellow for a bit of a harsh kick.
————-
87th Minute– Miroslave Klose looks the same as he did in 2002.
————-
86th Minute– Miroslave Klose comes in for Altintop.
————-
84th Minute– Vidic OFF THE CROSSBAR!!! He heads home a Giggs header but it's off the bar.
————-
83rd Minute– Rooney's free kick is headed out for a corner.
————-
82nd Minute– Wow, Nani dove so badly to draw a free kick. Giggs coming on and United has a free kick about 24 yards out, top of the left corner of the area.
————-
81st Minute– Ryan Giggs is ready to come in.
United will be happy with a draw at this point.
————-
78th Minute– Scholes gets a yellow.
Deserved equalizer from Bayern, which has been the better team for the sum of the match.
————-
77th Minute- GOAL BAYERN and it's Ribery with the free kick, deflected off the wall and past Van Der Sar. Bayern Munich 1, Manchester United 1.
————-
76th Minute– Gary Neville gets a yellow for a deliberate handball and Bayern has a dangerous free kick, 25 yards out, left of the arc.
————-
73rd Minute– Gomez is on for Muller.
————-
71st Minute– A second United goal would cripple Bayern in the series.
————-
70th Minute– Antonio Valencia and Dimitar Berbatov come in for Michael Carrick and Park Ji Sung. Bold moves by Sir Alex.
————-
62nd Minute– Mario Gomez is warming up now. Bayern needs something up top.
————-
59th Minute– Riberydribbles at Neville, but Nani tracks back and helps close him down. How Ribery hasn't exploited Neville more is beyond me. Good work by United on the Frenchman.
————-
56th Minute– SAVE VAN DER SAR. Altintop with a great dribble into the area, but his hard shot is stopped.
Van Der Sar with another save, this time on a Van Bommel shot. Bayern is pressing hard for that equalizer.
————-
54th Minute– It's rare when the United midfield loses a battle but Bayern's midfield has done very well to control things.
————-
50th Minute– SAVE VAN DER SAR. he has to dive to full stretch to keep out a deflected shot.
Patrice Evra with terrible acting on an alledged foul.
————-
47th Minute– United starting slowly this half and Bayern is flying.
————-
47th Minute– Target practice for Bayern early on. Olic forces a tough save and Bayern keeps the pressure on. Corner for the germans.
————-
46th Minute– We're back.
————-
HALFTIME– Manchester United 1, Bayern Munich 0. An early goal gives United the lead, but they've been kind of sleepy since. Bayern Munich has shown more energy in chasing an equalizer, but no goals yet for the home team.
————-
45th Minute– SAVE BUTT, Great shot by Carrick but Butt grabs it.
————-
45th Minute– Nani is limping off after getting stepped on.
————-
43rd Minute– Nothing from the United corner. Here comes Bayern again, but Rio is there to intercept.
————-
42nd Minute– United corner.
it's unreal how many times Rooney is getting the ball 25 yards and closer, with one defender on him.
————-
39th Minute– Rooney with an uncharacteristic miss on a great chance.
————-
37th Minute– Questionable call against Bayern that robs them of a great chance. Not sure what the call was.
————-
33rd Minute– SAVE Van Der Sar, stops a long-range Pranjic shot. Didn't really trouble him.
————-
31st Minute– Van Der Sar is very busy tonight.
————-
31st Minute– Rooney takes a shot by it's right at Butt (stop laughing).
————-
30th Minute– Bayern corneris taken short, Van Der Sar catches the cross with ease.
————-
29th Minute– Lung-busting run from Van Bommel, but Neville does well to race in and pick off his final pass. Good attacking soccer right now.
————-
28th Minute– Bayern is on the attack again, but Olic is ruled offside on what looked like a great chance.
————-
23rd Minute– Bayern is moving the ball, but you can tell they miss Robben and Schweinsteiger.
Ribery chips a pass to Altintop, but Altintop can't quite settle it.
————-
21st Minute– SAVE VAN DER SAR, stops a Ribery shot from distance. Bayern looking a bit better now.
————-
16th Minute– Nani JUST wide. Chance comes soon after Rooney had raced in on goal, only to have his shot blocked. United starting to find a good rhythm.
————-
15th Minute– Lahm with a nice run forward but the cross from Altintop is out of bounds.
————-
12th Minute– Bayern begins to get a footing. Now they get a corner.
————-
7th Minute– Bayern off to a slow start.
And for those wondering, Rooney scored 64 seconds into the match.
————-
4th Minute– Rooney gave DeMichelis a head fake in the penalty area and raced in unmarked to volley home the Nani free kick, a bad free kick also surrendered by DeMichelis.
————-
2nd Minute- GOAL MANCHESTER UNITED!!!! And it's Wayne Rooney, who fakes out his man and goes in wide open to volley home a Nani free kick from the right flank. WOW.
————-
1st Minute– We're off.
Park on the left, Nani on the right.
————-
PRE-GAME– You can rest assured Park Ji Sung will be helping Gary Neville on Franck Ribery, who will be working the left flank for Bayern today.
The broadcast has Nani on the right and Park Ji Sung on the left. We'll see if that's right.
————-
PRE-GAME– Can Bayern stop Wayne Rooney? Daniel Van Buyten is a physical player so you wonder if he will look to be physical from the start. Will the ref call it close?
————-
PRE-GAME– Here is today's lineup for Manchester United:
MANCHESTER UNITED
———————–Rooney————————
Park—————–Scholes——————-Nani
————Carrick———–Fletcher—————
Evra——–Ferdinand——-Vidic———-Neville
——————–Van Der Sar———————
BAYERN MUNICH
—————–Muller——–Olic——————–
Ribery——–Van Bommel——Pranjic——–Altintop
Badstuder——Van Buyten—-DeMechelis—–Lahm
————-
From my personal experience a bad sprain almost never truly heals. The ankle with the bad sprain seems to be so much more suspect and if you keep playing on it, you just get roll after roll after roll.
I agree. 10 is an almost unreal number. Nobody has hit that since 1970 and it’s only been done three times.
Hah looking at BBC makes me laugh on the Rooney ordeal. If any of you have read the book “Soccernomics”, there’s a great bit about England not winning the World Cup following a specific formula:
1. Certainty England will win the WC – already been going on the past few months
2. England drawn with a former war time enemy – Revolutionary War. Check.
3. Bad luck only happens to them – this Rooney injury could be it
4. Everyone else cheated – can only imagine those cries in June
5. England is knocked out before getting near the final – I could see them out easily in the second if they somehow face Germany
The list continues with much more I can’t remember. But all post-knock out. I think Capello & Co. will prove Mr. Kuper a genius.
His left foot was stepped on, but then rolled his right ankle when he hopped from the stomp.
He was was favoring his right foot after the match
Definitely. I’m a Bayern fan, so I’ll take what I can get. lol
he hasnt even made the last few brazil rosters much less starting…dunga doesnt fancy him i guess
Looked to me like he just rolled it as Gomez got away, but that was my view.
I think Rooney has done a metatarsal… He got a stamp with a stud right on the top… I think Wayne will be in a race to make the WC…
Did Rooney tweak an ankle, or was he clonked by Gomez? At work, and won’t see game till tonight, but followed BBC Football Live online (sorry, IG), and they seemed to make out like Super Mario steamrolled Rooney. Thanks.
the stakes were slightly higher in 99…
Never broken mine, thankfully, but have rolled them both about a zillion times each. Bad sprains are hideous. It always seems like it’s just about healed, but it isn’t, but you keep playing on it anyway.
I won’t wish/speculate…don’t want to bring that bad karma around.
I’ve heard people say that severe sprains are harder to recover from than outright broken ankles. I’ve never done either, so I can’t attest. Thoughts?
Rooney’s injury looked a lot like what happened to Dempsey a couple months ago
The USA needs to find an impenetrable Butt of their own to foil Rooney’s probing runs…
How’s that for kharma? Bayern wins with a stoppage time goal after trailing the majority of the game to Man U! Take that 1999!
But prob a slight sprain.
Wow what a game!!! Bayern!!!
My crystal ball says “metatarsal”……
Doubtful. The cup’s still over 2 months away.
ooh they just showed it. looks like he just rolled his ankle pretty severly. i’ve done that. doesn’t look like a break. But a severe sprain.
Great Game! Bayern now has a chance….
Good game. Great stuff by Bayern.
Wow. And Rooney injured. U.S. national team world cup implications right their too.
clutch!!
Bayern has looked the better team. Even without two of it’s top players
Bayern has looked the better team. Even without two of it’s top players
I’m sure he’ll do great, but Spain isn’t in a rollover group nor do they have an easy path. 10 just seems a bit much for any one player.
Pele scored 12 across all his WC’s, and Ronaldo 15. I find it hard that Villa would come so close to those career outputs in one tournament. Obviously I can’t say for sure, I just would bet on the under on this one.
Rooney can’t stop scoring goals, even tipping Ribery’s shot into the net.
Just like Reggie Bush/ Wayne Bridge, Rooney’s finding it hard to get around such a Butt.
True. Also, Villa is very selfish around the goal. Doesn’t lay off too many chances to teammates.
Just how injured is Robben? For crying out loud, this is the Champions League quarters. He better be on crutches.
@Aaron you’re right. Most likely the 3rd game will be for the likes of Negredo and Llorente or Guiza to start. But I can easily see Villa being top-scorer and close to 10goals if Spain make it to even the semi-final. Torres will probably have a ton of assists as his shots usually have a way of ending up in the goal via Villa
rangers down 3-1 before halftime. serves you right for not playing our yanks, get your act together. also disappointed robben wasn’t fit enough today, i don’t know if munich will ever get the chance to see the potentially unreal wing combo of robben-ribery fully fit
Ten goals is too high though. He likely will be able to sit out their 3rd game in the group as it is anyways. I’d cap him at 7, 8 if I was feeling saucy.
Pato…Will he even start for Brazil?
Villa? I definitely did not hear it hear first. He’s the odds on favorite, my man.
I agree, get Mo and Beas the hell out of Scotland, already! On the bright side, at least it was a car burning and not a car bombing. Sort of a sick and twisted bright side, granted.
Top scorers at this WC-
David Villa with 10goals. You heard it here 1st.
Torres, Rooney, Messi, Pato all with 5 a piece.
Does anyone think Davies will score a goal or 2 before the WC with his club Sochaux? They resemble a club like Fulham in that they are strong in the back but lousy up front. I don’t believe any of their strikers have more than maybe 6 goals this season. So a reborn Davies can probably easily be topscorer each season.
If Rooney can perform well in the WC, I think he could very well win the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’or.
At the moment he and Messi and Ronaldo are the only ones who are worthy of it.
Well Torres has been improving. If he does well in the WC I could see him in the top5 running.
Btw if Ronaldo hadn’t scored his 31 league goals or won the Champions league in 08 with Man U, I bet Torres would have won all those awards
Yeah, I agree with you about SPL, but Beasley not even making the bench is pretty sad.
You would be loved if you could provide more conversation of the game 🙂
Good call van Gaal
wow. not a great start for munich, first trip down and rooney already bags one. united fans must be lapping it up, i personally revel every time i get to hear ferguson whine. c’mon munich
I think Ranger and celtic practices may be more competitive than most o the league games.
I don’t think too many will argue with you. The SPL isn’t much of a league.
yup. lame. really want both beasley and edu out of scotland and into either another european league or even mls. i know they aren’t like freddy adu where they just need to re-gather but i say mls just because i actually prefer it to the SPL these days. now… i will leave this comment to be ripped to shreds but i stand by it, i hate the ridiculous tackles, the car-burnings and inequality of the SPL
Beas not playing?
How come Lyon stopped playing Gomis up top? I always thought he was dangerous in the few Lyon games that I’ve seen this season. He’s been on the bench for the past few rounds