First Half: Perez fires a shot over at the near side. Rooney heads against the near post. Penalty! Van Persie is fouled by Holebas. Goal! 1-0, United take the lead as Van Persie slots the penalty home into the near side. Dominguez has a shot from long range that deflects wide of the far post. Valencia has a low driven shot saved. Evra has a header tipped over the bar. Fuster has a header parried before Dominguez has a low strike brilliantly parried away. from the near post. Valencia has a penalty appeal turned down. Goal! 2-0, Rooney finds Van Persie with a low cross who slots in at the near side.
Half Time: 2-0.
Second Half: Goal! 3-0, Van Persie completes his hat-trick with a free kick into the far side. Dominguez has a free kick deflected wide of the far post. Perez heads wide of the far post. Jones fires an effort from the edge of the box well over the bar. Dominguez volleys over the bar from the edge of the box. Perez has a shot saved. Rafael has an effort that deflects behind at the near side. Campbell strikes a low shot from long range wide of the far post. Dominguez has a shot from an acute angle parried away. Rooney smashes a shot wide of the far post.
Full Time: 3-0.
Man United win 3-2 on aggregate.
My Opinion:
My man of the match was Van Persie. United go through as Van Persie bags a hat-trick. Phew!! After a disastrous first leg result, United turned on the style to progress into the champions league quarter-finals. Van Persie was on absolute fire tonight, scoring a hat-trick that put United through by one goal. There were some huge performances from the likes of Giggs, De Gea and Valencia who all contributed to that result. It will hopefully give the players the confidence to go on and maybe even win the competition. Nevertheless, it will give Moyes and the fans a monumental lift after what has been a tough transitional season so far. United will want to avoid Real Madrid and Bayern in the Quarters but I'm just glad they went through tonight.
Olympiakos looked very poor and played like a completely different team to the one that beat United 2-0 in the first leg. However, they did actually create some decent chances but kept being denied by the amazing performance of De Gea in the United goal. Even though they were defensively unstable, one away goal and they could just have easily gone through themselves. Thankfully, they didn't get it despite a nervous last ten minutes of hanging on from United. A great game of European football at Old Trafford that brought out the best of United and I'm absolutely chuffed to bits that I can finally celebrate something as a United fan this season.
Borussia Dortmund 1 (5) v 2 (4) Zenit St Petersburg Hulk (16), Kehl (39), Rondon (73)
Dortmund win 5-4 on aggregate.
My Opinion:
Dortmund scrape through despite Zenit fightback. After scoring four away goals you would have thought that things might have been a lot more straightforward for Dortmund. However, they made it difficult for themselves and ended up losing the second leg but doing enough to get them into the quarters. Kehl levelled for Dortmund on the night before half time but they were not at their best tonight. Although, they still pose a danger for any team in the quarters and will be tough to knock out.
Zenit were woeful in the first leg and pretty much lost the tie back in Russia. However, they put in a performance tonight despite the disadvantage of the scoreline. Hulk scored a typical screamer whilst Rondon netted in the second half but they still needed to score another two goals to go through. Dortmund held on to go through but Zenit can be proud of their run in the champions league this season.
Best Goal: Van Persie, Hulk. Winner: Hulk
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