paulo sergio denies united published: tuesday 20 november 2001, 23.00cet
a paulo sergio goal two minutes from time rescued a point for fc bayern münchen in a 1-1 home draw with manchester united fc.
bayern münchen 1-1 man united - a paulo sergio goal two minutes from time spared fc bayern münchen's blushes as they scraped a 1-1 draw with manchester united fc at the olympiastadion in their group a uefa champions league game on tuesday. calm finish a diagonal ball from substitute carsten jancker bypassed an off-balance mikaël silvestre and paulo sergio darted into the area and calmly slipped the ball under goalkeeper fabien barthez and into the bottom right-hand corner of the united goal.
agony for united it was agony for united who seemed to have weathered the storm in munich and were poised for an impressive victory in their first game of the second group stage of the champions league thanks to a 74th-minute ruud van nistelrooij goal.
game plan united came to the olympiastadion with the intention of frustrating the home side and scoring on the break, and after weathering the storm in the first half, manager sir alex ferguson would have been pleased with his side's performance.
good chances bayern created some good chances, not least hasan salihamidzic's 23rd-minute header from a willy sagnol corner which veteran defender denis irwin did well to head off the line at united's near post, but it was not until the closing stages of the half that they had the visitors looking genuinely worried.
just wide united had just gone close through quinton fortune's 35th-minute header when bayern started to press forward. after 38 minutes, samuel kuffour's header from sagnol's free-kick just cleared barthez's crossbar and on 41 minutes elber latched on to salihamidzic's angled ball only to head narrowly wide.
on the break the second half was altogether more even, but as bayern pushed forward to try and get the opening goal, united's previously quiet attack began to spring into life. after some patient defending, they burst forward after 74 minutes to open the scoring.
volleyed past kahn paul scholes got the ball in midfield and fed it beautifully to substitute silvestre on the right flank. the french defender whipped the ball across the goalmouth where it was met by the on-rushing van nistelrooij who volleyed the ball past goalkeeper oliver kahn.
rattled the crossbar bayern looked crestfallen and it seemed like united could score again. they certainly went very close with ten minutes to go after defender roy keane rattled the crossbar with a fierce 25-metre drive. however, bayern's equaliser was not long in coming and, once paulo sergio had scored, they poured forward in search of a winner.
fabulous save it took a fabulous save from barthez in injury time to deny them. the ball darted through to ciriaco sforza inside the penalty area and the swiss international blasted towards goal, but the french international goalkeeper did superbly to get his body behind the ball and turn it round the post.
matchday eight beckons bayern will hope to do better when they visit fc nantes atlantique for their second group a game on 5 december. nantes lost 1-0 to boavista fc, who will visit united at old trafford on matchday eight.
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