Champions League: Round of 16 (Second Legs)

Manchester United 3 (3) v 0 (2) Olympiakos Van Persie (25pen,45,52 hat trick)
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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Champions League Round of 16 (First Legs)

Olympiakos 2 v 0 Manchester United Dominguez (38), Campbell (55)
First Half: Dominguez has an effort blocked by Vidic. Cleverley slices a volley over the bar. Perez fires a low shot from the edge of the box wide of the near post. Goal! 1-0, Olympiakos take the lead as Dominguez directs a long range shot into the opposite corner to wrong-foot De Gea. Rooney has a shot blocked.
Half Time: 1-0.
Second Half: Goal! 2-0, Campbell doubles the lead with a curling shot from long range into the near bottom corner. Olaitan fires a volley wide of the near post. Van Persie fires a shot over the bar. Young has a shot blocked.
Full Time: 2-0.



My Opinion:
My man of the match was Dominguez. United slump to defeat in Greece. Olympiakos were the better team and deserved to win the first leg. They took full advantage of a very poor United performance and put themselves in a good position heading to Old Trafford. their first goal looked fortunate at first but after viewing the replays, it was clear to see Dominguez intentionally directed the ball into the opposite corner. There was no doubt about the class of the second goal as Campbell scored a lovely curling shot into the bottom corner. 
United were simply atrocious. It was a terrible performance and it leaves them with a huge task to turn this tie around in the second leg. United failed to create many chances but their best one fell to Van Persie who fired over the bar. They never got going and it was extremely lacklustre. Very disappointing as United needed a good champions league run this year with their troubles in the league. It will be a massive task to turn this around but United are capable of putting on a performance at Old Trafford, it just remains to be seen if they can pull it off. Heaps of pressure will be placed on Moyes to turn things around but at the moment, every mistake and poor result is being scrutinised. 

Zenit St. Petersburg 2 v 4 Borussia Dortmund Mkhitaryan (4), Reus (5), Shatov (57), Lewandowski (61,71), Hulk (69pen)

Best Goal: Campbell, Reus, Lewandowski. Winner: Campbell

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