UEFA Champions League Round Up: March 19th, 2014
Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vegaseddie/
The story of the night in the Champions League was Manchester United overturning a 2-0 loss away to Greek side Olympiakos. The ‘Field of Dreams’ at Old Trafford was lively tonight, as the United supporters showed up in force and backed their side to victory. Manchester United manager David Moyes was under intense pressure as his side had been defeated by Liverpool 3-0 at the weekend. United sit 7th in the Premier League table on 48 points, almost 20 points behind leaders Chelsea. There had been rumors of a rift between United players and Moyes, as well as discontent among the Manchester United board members. Many thought United were as good as done in this competition, the Greek champions had outclassed the Red Devils in the first leg. Rumors of Robin Van Persie being unhappy at United due to Moyes’ managerial skills were placed to rest, as the Dutch forward banged in a hat trick to overturn the 2 goal deficit and send United through. While United did go through, it was not a walk in the park. Olympiakos came close to scoring throughout the match. The United defense were on the back heel quite often, and United keeper David De Gea kept the Red Devils in the match and in the competition as a whole.
Credit: https://flic.kr/p/8ArFdq
At the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, German side Borussia Dortmund booked their place in the quarterfinals despite a loss to Russian Premier League team Zenit St. Petersburg. Brazilian striker Hulk scored a magnificent goal in the 16th minute to send the away fans into celebration, as the Russian side thought they could overturn a 4-2 first leg defeat. Dortmund would tie the game up just before halftime, with Dortmund captain Sebastian Kehl heading in a cross past the Zenit keeper. Zenit Substitute Jose Rondon scored a header with 17 minutes remaining in the match, but the away goals advantage to Dortmund meant that the St Petersburg outfit would need to score 2 more goals to move forward in the competition, the 2-1 win would be too little too late for the Russian side.
The UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal draw will take place on Friday morning in Nyon, Switzerland at 7:00am EDT.
Follow us on Twitter at @PrideofLondon!
Like us on Facebook at The Pride of London!