Round of 16 – Champions League leg 1:
Olympiacos 2-0 Manchester United
After Arsenal and Manchester City who are almost eliminated from Champions League campaign, Manchester United is the the 3rd English Premier League club to lamentably fail in Europe. Are there clear red flags of the end of the English club hegemony or just some unfortunate circumstances. Looking more into it, Arsenal have lost at home to probably the best club in the world at the moment and last year champion, the potent Bayern Munich. Manchester City lacks experience at the highest level and even if FC Barcelona is not as invincible as in the past, they are still one great team in the world.
They have the experience and the talent on such given night to discomfort any other team, almost all per say. The problem lines deeper for the Red Devils. The retirement of Ferguson has brought a club to monotony, the flame is not there anymore. The new coach David Moyes, reputable in Everton, has struggled this year wiht his new team. Not only Manchedter United is probably out of Champions League contention for next year, they lost to a supposedly second tier squad which surely Ferguson would have come back with a 2-0 victory. Days are dark in Manchester, which is on its path for one of the worst season of the club ever… Is it already too late to overturn?
David Moyes reacts:
“It’s the worst we’ve played in Europe [this season], that’s for sure,” said Moyes in his post-match press conference. It was a really poor performance. We didn’t get going from the start. We didn’t deserve anything from tonight. We just never got to grips with things. To a man, you could hardly pick anyone out [who played well]. We just didn’t perform well”.
“I’m surprised. I didn’t see that level of performance coming. We came into the game in good form and a good mindset but it didn’t show tonight. We’ll do everything we possibly can to reverse the 2-0 defeat tonight. We’ll put it right, we’re determined to put it right and we’ll have opportunities to do that in the coming weeks.
“There’s undoubtedly talent at Manchester United but tonight we didn’t show it. Me and the team, we didn’t show it together. I take responsibility. It’s my team and I’ll always front up. The players are hurting as well. They know how they performed. We’re a team and we stick together.
“We didn’t play well and we have to play better. We can do. The one good thing is there’s still a second game to come. Old Trafford’s seen some great nights in the past and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing another one.”
“I have to say I don’t think we were two goals worse off in the game. [For the first goal] they had a shot, which got deflected… but we didn’t offer enough on the night to create a goal really.”
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