VIEW: United vs Bayern Munich (a). 1-2

Potentially
the worst, most pivotal night of the season? The impact of defeat in Munich – bad although not
detrimental at this stage – was heavily enhanced by the fact our best player
limped out of the stadium on crutches and is now ‘awaiting the results of a
scan’. Never ever a good thing to hear.

Munich, for their efforts, deserved
something out of the game, and in fairness  a 1-0 victory - after Rooney's 2nd minute volley put us ahead -  would have been a tad unfair. Even without Robben they were formidable in
midfield; with Ribery simply mesmerising at times and Olic constantly
threatening our back four. Yet as much as their resilience genuinely deserved a
goal, our strength and composure at the back was nothing short of brilliant.
From Neville (who had the enjoyable job of covering Ribery all game) to
Fletcher; it felt as though everyone chipped in whenever the pressure was
mounting.

Unfortunately,
our brave defending was not enough to walk away as victos. Firstly, Neville’s
brilliant work at restraining Ribery was effectively whipped out through a
desperate moment of idiocy. Pointlessly handballing just outside the area,
Ribery’s freekick found the net via a Rooney deflection; leaving Van der saar
stranded and helpless.

At that
stage, 1-1 would not only have sufficed – keeping our unbeaten European run
truly in tact in the process – but it would have been a fair reflection on this
challenging game. Although the home side technically dominated throughout the
second half, our few moments of attacking prowess and plentiful periods of
solid defending suggested a draw would be reasonable result. For both sides.

All the talk,
as it inevitably will be whenever we play Bayern from now on, was ‘99 and all
that’. So ironically and very fittingly, they left it till the last kick of the
game to beat us at the same score-line we won the trophy 11 years ago. Cruel
and thoroughly annoying can sum up the final few minutes.

If they
grab a draw next week – something more than possible on the evidence of their
football last night – then we are out; yet more annoying than the result, with
possibly the biggest game of the season only days away, was the image of Rooney
so worryingly hobbling off.

At this
stage of the campaign, error (last night in the form of Neville and arguably
Evra for their winner) is not an option; nor is the loss of crucial players. My
opening statement may be completely dramatic in hindsight (we’ve got the away
goal…so whats the problem), yet if we go out as a result of that horribly
painful goal, and if Rooney’s ‘scan’ comes back showing a picture of a ligament
out of place…then surely the negative impact of the game would be unprecedented.