Report: Wolfsburg 1 – 3 Manchester united
Manchester United overcame the odds tonight by beating Wolfsburg 3-1 in Germany.
The English champions were without 12 players tonight through injury, but still managed to beat the German champions and finish top of group B.
A Michael Owen hat trick was enough to secure the win, while the highly rated Edin Dzeko scored for the hosts.
The hosts tried to pile on the pressure early in the game and had some good efforts from their front pairing of Dzeko and Grafite, but Kuszczac was equal to them.
United survived a credible penalty appeal shortly after, as Michael Carrick appeared to slide into Makoto Hasebe without making contact with the ball, but Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers waved away the appeals and gave a corner instead.
Darron Gibson tried a couple of long speculative efforts but his radar was off tonight and he failed to trouble the goalkeeper.
Wolfsburg were getting closer to breaching United’s back line, particular from crosses where the makeshift back four seemed to be lacking position awareness. Andrea Barzagli and Zvjezdan Misimovic both headed over from close range when they really should have done better.
United finally got the ball in the net after 31 minutes thanks to Danny Welbeck‘s cool finish, but the linesman correctly ruled that he was in an offside position when Anderson made the pass.
With two minutes to go until the half time interval, it was Michael Owen who found the back of the net. Nani sent an inswinging cross into the box and Owen – unmarked – coolly headed it into the right had corner of the net to give United a half time lead.
Wolfsburg were again the brighter team in the opening stages of the second half. They piled on the pressure knowing that qualification for the last 16 was at stake.
Edin Dzeko was the man to bring them on level terms. The Bosnian fired a powerful header past a helpless Tomasz Kuszczac to score his second goal against United this season.
Sir Alex Ferguson responded by bringing on wingers Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan and it was the latter who had the biggest impact.
The Frenchman found himself in the Wofsburg penalty area and bamboozled the defence with a piece of brilliant skill before squaring the ball to Michael Owen at the back post to score his 2nd of the game with a tap in.
Ten minutes later it was Owen again who found the net. Wolfsburg had pushed everyone forward and lost the ball, and Owen ran with the ball from just inside his own half, then calmly dinked the ball over the ‘keeper to complete his hat trick to chants of “Michael Owen is a red – He hates scousers” from the travelling Manchester United fans.
The final scoreline was 3-1 to united in what turned out to be a comfortable night despite the injuries. Sir Alex will be glad to have won the game and not suffered any more injuries before the weekend visit of Aston Villa.
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