Manchester United crashed out of the Champions League at the group phase for only the third time in 16 years following a stunning 2-1 loss against Swiss champions Basel on Wednesday.
Six years to the day since they last bade farewell at the group stage, following a 2-1 loss at Benfica, last year’s beaten finalists were undone by goals in each half from Marco Streller and Alexander Frei.
Despite needing just a point to go through from Group C, Alex Ferguson’s side fell to their first away defeat in the group phase in five years, but not before Phil Jones’ late goal had given them a vain glimmer of hope.
Photo: Reuters
Victory allowed Basel to book a place in the last 16 for the first time since 2002-2003, while for United, who reached three of the last four finals, there is the unwelcome consolation of the Europa League.
The last time United wore white against a team sporting maroon and blue in European competition was in May’s Champions League final defeat by Barcelona, but few can have predicted Wednesday’s game would end with similar heartache.
Contrary to expectation, Ferguson chose to field Wayne Rooney as a lone striker and left Danny Welbeck on the bench, despite the absences through injury of both Javier Hernandez and Dimitar Berbatov.
Goalkeeper David de Gea also returned after being rested for the 1-0 win at Aston Villa, but his first contribution was an unconvincing punch and his second presented Basel with the opening goal.
A clash of heads between United defenders Nemanja Vidic and Chris Smalling left the latter on the turf, but play continued and when de Gea could only partially clear Xherdan Shaqiri’s cross, Streller pounced to half-volley home.
United started assertively, but the goal cowed them and there were 20 aimless minutes until they fashioned a real chance, with Rooney and then Park Ji-sung both unable to convert Nani’s low cross from close range.
Rooney then shot straight at Yann Sommer from Ryan Giggs’ intelligent reverse pass, before the 22-year-old goalkeeper saved bravely at the feet of Nani.
The visitors were building up a head of steam, but shortly before halftime, they received another setback when Vidic had to be stretchered off after his knee appeared to buckle in a challenge with Streller.
There was renewed purpose to the away side’s play in the second half, and Rooney went close to an equalizer when he curled narrowly wide following another astute through-ball by Giggs.
Shaqiri gave a reminder of Basel’s threat at the other end when he clipped a shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box and moments later de Gea had to produce a superb finger-tip save to keep out Frei’s free-kick.
United roared back though, and Marcus Steinhofer almost scored a famous own goal when he volleyed an attempted clearance against his own crossbar.
As the half wore on, Basel found it harder and harder to get out of their own half, with Rooney dragging wide after cutting in from the left and then bending the ball a couple of feet wide of the right-hand post.
However, the goal did not come, and with six minutes remaining, Frei dived to head home a cross from the excellent Shaqiri to send St Jakob-Park into raptures.
Jones scrambled in a consolation amid the game’s dying embers, but it was too late to avert one of the most painful losses of the Ferguson era.
EURO 2012
AFP, NYON, SWITZERLAND
England striker Wayne Rooney’s ban for Euro 2012 has been reduced from three matches to two following his appeal to UEFA yesterday.
Rooney will now be available for England’s third Group D game, against joint hosts Ukraine, but will miss the first two fixtures against France and Sweden for kicking out at Miodrag Dzudovic in the final qualifier in Montenegro in October.
A ban for the third match has been suspended for four years and the 26-year-old has also agreed to do some coaching in the community, UEFA confirmed.
Rooney traveled to Nyon for the appeal after Manchester United’s shock Champions League exit at FC Basel on Wednesday night, along with England manager Fabio Capello.
England managing director Adrian Bevington said on Twitter: “Fair hearing at UEFA. Important Wayne Rooney and Fabio Capello in attendance. Available for Ukraine game at Euros.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but