In what has been a wretched season for Manchester United the
European Cup has provided some solace, but tonight their journey and possibly
tenure in the Champions League for some time looks sure to end at the hands of
last year’s holders Bayern Munich tonight.
Moyes’s side have had patches of light after the turn of the
year with some decent performances from key men and much more intent, but when
they’ve faced high quality opposition they’ve crumbled badly. This year in the
Premier League, Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City have all
beaten them with three of those four aforementioned defeats coming at Old
Trafford.
Their 3-0 defeat against City - a margin that if anything
was kind to Moyes’s side - came after a week which saw them turn around a 2-0
defeat to Olympiakos with arguably their best performance of the season before
a confidence boosting 2-0 win at West Ham, which removes any optimism from
their 4-1 win against Aston Villa at the weekend, a scoreline that does flatter
Moyes’s side with the visitors having passed up several good chances in the
second half after going ahead early.
There are no such worries regarding Bayern Munich, however.
Since a December defeat at home to Manchester City they’ve won 16 of their
eighteen games, taking the Bundesliga with seven games to go (now becoming the
only side in Bundesliga history to be declared champions before the end of
March) and scoring 56 goals and conceding just the 10. Still unbeaten in the
league, little has changed from the side that won the treble last year on all
evidence.
Bayern’s 3-3 draw against Hoffenehim ended a 19 match
winning streak at the weekend but Philipp Lahm, Arjen Robben, David Alaba,
Manuel Neuer, Javi Martinez, Thomas Muller and Mario Mandzukic were left out of
the starting XI and a lack of focus was acceptable given the circumstances.
Most of that side has been at the centre of their best
successes this season regardless of home and away form and their rampaging
attack is going to be a huge test for a defence that has been torn apart by the
speed of Liverpool and the skill of Manchester City. Left back Pratice Evra’s
suspension and Rafael’s thigh injury pushes Alex Buttner and Phil Jones against
Robben and Ribery while a near 70% possession average (according to Opta)
should give plenty of opportunities for the likes of Mario Mandzukic to feed
off.
On the road in the Bundesliga this season they’ve won at
three of their closest four rivals by more than one goal and have beaten City
at the Etihad and Arsenal at the Emirates by 2 goals this season – United are
13 and 10 points respectively with City having two games in hand on them this
season.
In the last two years Bayern have won away at Juventus,
Barcelona, and Arsenal twice in the Champions League and on each of those occasions
they’ve managed to win by more than one goal. Skybet offer 5/4 on Bayern
covering the one goal handicap and all the evidence points towards that being
the bet of the night.
Advice
3 pts Bayern -1 (5/4 SkyBet)
I too couldn't see Utd having any joy in this match as I don't rate Moyes due his record against elite teams throughout his career.
ReplyDeleteHowever I didn't see the game so wondered what was your take on what happened. Was it simply bad finishing on Bayern's behalf or something else?