Manchester U 2 Marseille 1

Man­chester Uni­ted 2 Olym­pique Mar­seille 1, Old Traf­ford, UEFA Cham­pi­ons Lea­gue Last Six­teen Sec­ond Leg, Mar­ch 15, 2011. Man­chester Uni­ted be­at Mar­seille to gain a place in the quart­er-fi­nals. Two goals by Chi­charito sent Uni­ted in­to a 2-0 lead be­fore Wes Bro­wn head­ed the ball in­to his own net in the 82nd min­ute to make the fi­nal score 2-1 to the hosts.

Reign­ing Barclays Pre­mier Lea­gue Cham­pi­ons Man­chester Uni­ted were un­defeated at their Old Traf­ford base so far in their Cham­pi­ons Lea­gue cam­paign, draw­ing wi­th Scot­tish Pre­mier Lea­gue gi­ants Glas­gow Ran­gers and Span­ish La Liga te­am Va­lencia, and de­feat­ing Turk­ish Su­per Lea­gue out­fit Bursaspor. Uni­ted, who had ma­naged to hold Olym­pique Mar­seille to a goal­less draw at the St­ade Ve­lo­drome in the fir­st leg, opened the scor­ing af­ter five min­utes of play as Ry­an Gig­gs fou­nd Way­ne Roo­ney who­se cross was calmly fin­ished off by Javi­er Her­nandez. Mar­seille should have lev­elled the score just a few min­utes la­ter when An­dre Ayew pro­vided a golden chan­ce for An­dre Pierre Gig­nac, but his ef­fort went over the cross­bar. The vis­it­ing si­de missed an­oth­er de­cent goal scor­ing op­por­tun­ity as Soulemayne Di­awara head­ed wide from clo­se ran­ge nine min­utes be­fore the ha­lf time break. Va­lencia ev­entually re­placed fel­low wing­man Nani fif­teen min­utes in­to the sec­ond ha­lf, and shortly af­ter­wards Fa­bio came on for his twin bro­ther Ra­fael who was car­ried off on a stretch­er af­ter sus­tain­ing an in­jury. The mat­ch swung to and fro un­till the 75th min­ute when Va­lencia played the ball to Ry­an Gig­gs and his ex­cel­lent cross fou­nd Chi­charito who ham­mered ho­me the sec­ond goal. And athough Wes Bro­wn made an own goal wi­th on­ly eight min­utes re­man­ing on the referee´s clock, Man­chester Uni­ted held firm to reach the last eight in the Cham­pi­ons Lea­gue. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Ed­win van der Sar, Wes Bro­wn, John O’Shea, Chris Small­ing, Pat­rice Ev­ra, Mi­chael Car­rick, Ry­an Gig­gs, Nani, Paul Scho­les, Javi­er Her­nandez, Way­ne Roo­ney. Sub­stitutes: Ra­fael, Dar­ron Gib­son, Fa­bio, Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov, Va­lencia, Gab­riel Ober­tan, To­masz Kusz­czak. Mar­seille Te­am: Ste­ve Mandanda, Souley­mane Di­awara, Rod Fanni, Taye Taiwo, Stephane M’­bia, Gab­riel Hein­ze, Ben­oit Cheyrou, An­dre Pierre Gig­nac, Lucho Gon­zalez, An­dre Ayew, Lo­ic Remy. Sub­stitutes: Ed­ou­ard Cisse, Hilton, Fa­brice Ab­ri­el, Charles Kabore, Math­ieu Val­buena, Jor­dan Ayew, Elinton.

Manchester United Quickfacts

In 1974, Man­chester United´s Old Traf­ford Sta­dium be­came the fir­st ever foot­ball gro­und in Eng­land to in­stall met­al peri­met­er fen­cing in or­der to pre­vent sup­port­ers from in­vad­ing the pitch.

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