Manchester United Had Eight Players in the Penalty Box – Pep Guardiola Delighted at Bayern Munich Victory

Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola has said that he is proud of the way his team performed against English giants Manchester United after the German club beat David Moyes’ team 3-1 in the return leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday.


Having drawn the opening leg 1-1 at Old Trafford last week, the Bundesliga champions made it to the semi-finals of the European tournament on an aggregate win of 4-2, and the Spanish boss is delighted with the way his team responded against a tough unit.

“The Champions League quarter-finals are always a tough test and that was the case again today. United had their goalkeeper and eight players in the penalty box”, the 43-year-old was quoted as saying by the club’s official site.

“We were patient and had a little bit of luck in front of goal. But we’re through to the semi-finals and I’m very, very proud of my team.

“I’m happy and delighted. The players ran their hearts out today and worked really hard. This is the best part of the season and we’re in a great situation”, he added.

The treble-chasing Bavarians, who are defending their Champions League title this year, will now be looking to repeat their feat once their opponents are decided by the draw on Friday. They will also play Kaiserslautern in the German Cup semi-final at the Allianz Arena on 16th April.

Manchester United set to rest Wayne Rooney so he'll be fit for England's World Cup challenge

Striker who needed a pain-killing jab before Champions League quarter-final loss to Bayern may get time off now Reds have little to play for

Wayne Rooney is set to be handed a rest to get himself fully fit for the World Cup.


England striker Rooney is nursing a badly bruised toe suffered in Manchester United’s Champions League draw against Bayern Munich last week.

Rooney had a pain-killing injection to get him through the Reds' 3-1 defeat in the return leg in Germany on Wednesday.

Despite the jab, Rooney was nowhere near his best, fluffing two decent chances. He now faces a battle to regain full fitness before the World Cup build-up begins.

Rooney has suffered a series of injuries this season, including hamstring and groin problems, and is desperate to be in peak condition before flying to Brazil.

United have five games left this season and have not given up on snatching the last Champions League spot, despite being seven points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, and can also qualify for next season's Europa League.

But manager Moyes is understood to be considering giving Rooney a break to help the 28-year-old make a full recovery from his toe problems and the effects of his injury-ravaged season.

Roy Hodgson’s England squad travel to Portugal for a training camp next month, then face Peru in a friendly at Wembley on May 30 before jetting off to the USA for two warm-up games.

Their World Cup campaign begins against Italy on June 14, followed by meetings with Uruguay and Costa Rica.

Rooney is determined to give himself the best possible chance of producing his very best at a World Cup after flat performances in Germany in 2006 and South Africa in 2010.

What We Learned: Bayern Munich 3-1 Manchester United

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United were beaten by the better side

No two ways about it; once Patrice Evra fired in that stunning away goal, Bayern were on top, and thoroughly deserved to go through. A combination of a noticeable increase in intensity and post-goal slackness from United had them looking far more dangerous than had managed throughout the entirety of the tie, and allowed them to round off the evening in relative tranquility. Most knew that the gulf in class could prove telling once the going got tough, but once United deigned to take control of the tie, Guardiola’s side finally showed their teeth, and the visitors weren’t strong enough to cope with them.

The reaction to going ahead sticks in the craw, of course. Moyes was right to label it ‘schoolboy’, especially when you consider how well United had coped with the task of subjugating the reigning champions until that point. But in a season that has seen letdowns by the veritable truckload, it was no great surprise to see the evening end with Moyes’ charges chasing a late miracle. But in the presence of a team widely regarded as the continent’s best, it wasn’t so much of a shock.

Jones: Manchester United need to be in the Champions League

The centre-back underlined the importance of the club testing themselves against the strongest teams, and has set his sights on a return to the competition as soon as possible, insisting that a club of Manchester United's stature cannot afford to be anywhere else.


Goals Mario Mandzukic, Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben cancelled out Patrice Evra's stunning opener on Wednesday night to secure a 4-2 quarter-final aggregate win for Bayern Munich.

Jones feels United were knocked out by the best team in the competition, but relished the occasion and underlined the need for clubs of such stature testing themselves regularly against the strongest sides.

"It's huge. United need to be in the Champions League," Jones told MUTV.

"Nights like this don’t come along too often. Teams like Bayern are who you want to be playing; if you want to test yourselves against the best you have to play them. In my eyes Bayern are the best.

United are unlikely to qualify for the competition next season for the first time since 1995-96 as they currently lie seven points off fourth-placed Arsenal, but Jones is eager to make any absence short-lived.

He continued: "It's disappointing now, having gone out; you look back on the season and think that if we’d won such and such a game it might have been different.

"But we’ll keep fighting until the end of the season because nights like this might not come around too often and we want to make sure we are in them as much as possible."

United Undone By A Lack Of Planning

When Manchester United kick off their first Europa League match at the start of August, the 22 seconds they led Bayern Munich will be a distant memory. For all the hope of vindication those 22 seconds offered David Moyes, the upshot is that, barring a miracle in the final five matches of the Premier League, the English champions will enter their first campaign outside the Champions League in 19 years. Moyes may have been beating the best with just over half an hour remaining on Wednesday night, but there is a sense that it will soon be forgotten.

United's exit is difficult to take given the uncertain future that now awaits. Following the heavy defeats at home to Liverpool and Manchester City in March, the two matches against Bayern provided a welcome distraction, a chance to dream amid a nightmare season. But as the dust settles it will count for little that Moyes' finest achievements have come in Europe's elite competition. Aside from the 2-0 defeat to Olympiakos, the manager has looked comfortable at this level - from the thrashings of Bayer Leverkusen through to the 57th minute in the Allianz Arena when Patrice Evra rifled United into the lead. However, in the context of the Premier League campaign United have never looked less deserving of a place in the top four, a failure for which Moyes deserves a significant share of the blame and could eventually pay for with his job.

Champions League Podcast from SkySports

United "not far away" from Europe

David Moyes yesterday insisted that Manchester United will be back in the Champions League within a season or two and that while the 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich was hard to take, there were plenty of positives to be drawn from United’s performance at the Allianz Arena.

Not surprisingly given the way he’s conducted himself this season, Moyes also emphasised the need to rebuild the team and, if he’s allowed to remain in charge, one feels last night might have been the last European game in red for a few players who could follow  Nemanja Vidic out of the door in the summer.

“We won’t have Champions League football [next season] but I don’t think it is far away,” said Moyes.