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Manchester United May Have a Psychological Edge Over Bayern Munich

In a match that was nicely summed up by Asad Asif here, Manchester United managed to hold German giants Bayern Munich to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday, in the Old Trafford leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie. In the days following the match, some of Bayern’s players, as well as manager Pep Guardiola, stirred up some drama with their comments.

In his post-game interview, Guardiola expressed his disagreement with the referee’s decision that resulted in Bastian Schweinsteiger’s second yellow card, and subsequent sending off. That call meant that Bayern’s star midfielder will not be allowed to participate in the second leg of the tie, next week in Munich. The manager said that Schweinsteiger should “absolutely not” have been sent off.  Certainly, the decision to show Schweinsteiger red was controversial, but, having already been cautioned in the match, he should definitely have known not to make such a late, two-footed tackle, with his studs up. Guardiola also demonstrated some of his thoughts when he allegedly confronted a Guardian reporter, becoming heated when asked whether he thought United had been negative in their tactics.

In addition to the anger about the red card, Bayern’s players were clearly quite frustrated by United’s defensive strategy. Credit is due to David Moyes, whose tactics and lineup managed to shut down Arjen Robben and the rest of the Munich team. When asked about the match, Robben likened United’s defence to a handball team. His comments seemed quite critical, implying that he hadn’t expected Manchester United to defend against him. His teammate Toni Kroos said that “It’s very difficult to play against a team that consistently has all its players around their own penalty area.”

It seems as though Bayern had been, perhaps, a little too confident going into this match. They don’t appear to have expected much of a challenge, given the poor season United have experienced. However, despite the Germans heavily dominating the possession with 74%, Man United managed to hold them to only one away goal. To me, it looks like all this controversy can only serve to benefit the English club. In the first leg, we all saw what can happen when a team gets too cocky. In the second, it’s possible that we’ll see a Munich team that’s rattled by all the drama, and heavily annoyed at an inability to score against a United team that (theoretically) they should thrash.

At this point, Man United really have nothing to lose. This is, oddly, the only competition they still have any shadow of a hope in. All the pressure will be on Guardiola’s squad, as they’re arguably the best club in the world right now, and it would be a huge disappointment for them to be eliminated in the quarter-final, especially by United, amid their worst season in recent memory. Missing Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez – crucial pieces of the Bayern lineup – will be a huge blow.

Bayern Munich do still have some very obvious advantages, though. For one, they’ll be playing in Munich, in front of 70,000 fans. And, they do have the edge of having scored an away goal. United need to either win the second leg outright, or draw with at least 2-2. A scoreless draw, Bayern will advance. If the match ends 1-1, then they’ll go to extra time, followed by penalties if need be.

Chelsea pulled off an upset over Bayern in 2012 to win the Champions League. I’ll be damned if United don’t have a chance to beat them, as well. We could see the shellacking we all expected. However, we could also see some of the resilience that Manchester United has become famous for. This should be a cracking match.

 

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