100 NOT OUT
In an era when people claim that the Champions League has become bland and predictable, Manchester United contrived to restore intense drama last night.
They will not take much pleasure in the recollection of that accomplishment, however, since it took the form of sacrificing a two-goal lead before clinching victory, their hundredth in European competition.
They will not take much pleasure in the recollection of that accomplishment, however, since it took the form of sacrificing a two-goal lead before clinching victory, their hundredth in European competition.
United, with a flawless record of four wins in group F, have now qualified for the second stage of the competition in each of the seven years since the Champions League assumed its present format.
The comforts of history, though, will not have wholly mollified Sir Alex Ferguson, who thought that the erratic nature of the match was typical of United. Ferguson made substitutions with United 2-0 ahead, but he cannot have expected that his team would then falter.
In the end, it took a goal from Paul Scholes with six minutes remaining to put down the resurgence of Olympiakos. No one would have suspected, for much of the night, that the Greeks could offer defiance.
With a match in prospect that offered them the chance to revitalise their situation in this group, the initial line-up was perversely designed to make little progress. It contained just one orthodox forward in Giovanni, and he was not left detached as part of any cunning plan. He simply lacked expert assistance from midfield.
With an apparently similar formation, United had a different attitude. Ryan Giggs would come galloping in from the left flank, while Scholes nipped through the middle. They, like the United supporters, may have blinked at the identity of the man to whose cause they were rallying. Diego Forlán, to widespread surprise, was the only attacker.
Forlán may have scored solely through a penalty kick so far in his career at United, but no manager readily gives up hope in an individual who cost some £7 million.
At present, the United squad is much reduced in numbers, even if Rio Ferdinand and Ruud van Nistelrooy are expected to return soon, with the contentious figure of Roy Keane liable to confront the public again before much longer in the Champions League. Recently, United have not had the luxury of making alterations, yet that has had the compensation of providing a settled look.
Their superiority was unquestioned here. They are the only club against whom Olympiakos had previously lost a home match in the Champions League and that painful experience always looked destined to be afflicted on the Greeks again last night.
The 15,000 capacity crowd in the Apollon Rizoupolis ground came with the intention of being noisy and passionate, but their ardour was dimmed for much of the night. Not until the later stages, when Olympiakos's plan was reshaped and there was any thrust towards the penalty area, did they have real cause to cheer.
UEFA Champions League Group E
Dynamo Kiev (1)2 - 0(0) Feyenoord
Newcastle United (0)1 - 0(0) Juventus
UEFA Champions League Group F
Bayer Leverkusen (1)2 - 1(0) Maccabi Haifa
Olympiakos (0)2 - 3(1) Man Utd
UEFA Champions League Group G
AC Milan (1)2 - 1(1) Bayern Munich
Lens (0)3 - 1(1) D Coruna
UEFA Champions League Group H
Barcelona (0)1 - 0(0) Lokomotiv Moscow
Club Brugge (1)3 - 1(0) Galatasaray