Barcelona draws with Man U
Spanish club left with little chance for quarterfinal berth
Posted: Wednesday November 25, 1998 06:36 PM
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Yorke (center) scored twice for Manchester in its 3-3 draw with Barcelona Shaun Botterill/Allsport |
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Barcelona slipped out of the Champions
League after a thrilling 3-3 draw with Manchester United in the
Champions League on Wednesday, the same result the two clubs achieved at Old
Trafford.
The result means United slipped to second in the Group D
standings and has to beat Bayern Munich to win the group while
Barcelona, which needed to win at Camp Nou, goes out.
Rivaldo, who terrorized the United defense, scored twice for the
Spanish club and also hit the crossbar with a 30-yard strike while
Dwight Yorke scored twice for United in an end-to-end game which
was a great advertisement for attacking soccer.
Barcelona was forced to play without injured Jose Guardiola,
Winston Bogare, Luis Enrique, Abelardo Fernandez and Miguel Angel
Nadal, suspended Philippe Cocu and ineligible Patrick Kluivert but
looked impressive going forward and went ahead on a goal by Sonny
Anderson just 50 seconds into the match.
Anderson stunned United with his first-minute strike, collecting
a pass from the left and shrugging off a feeble challenge from Gary
Neville before firing between Peter Schmeichel and the post from 20
yards.
The busy Schmeichel pushed away a low, 25-yard shot from
Rivaldo and rescued his team again when Barcelona caught out United
with a swift break from defense. Anderson got clear of the defense
only for Schmeichel to race out of goal and block his shot at the
expense of a corner.
Instead of being 2-0 down, United drew level after 25 minutes
with its first shot of the game.
Jesper Blomqvist broke down the left and passed inside to the
unmarked Yorke who had plenty of room to control the ball, pick his
spot and fire home.
The Spaniards were kept out again by an amazing one-handed,
reflex-action save by Schmeichel, the Dane blocking a shot from
Rivaldo and recovering to push the ball away with three more
Barcelona players waiting to pounce on the rebound.
But United went 2-1 ahead eight minutes later with Andy Cole scoring
his eighth league and cup goal in 10 games for Alex Ferguson's
team.
Roy Keane passed from deep, Yorke stepped over the ball to allow
it to go to Cole. He passed to his strike colleague and then took
the return pass to fire home with the Barcelona defense torn apart
Three minutes later it was 2-2 when Rivaldo curled a free kick
past Schmeichel who was moving the wrong way.
A minute after Dwight Yorke's near post header had been turned
behind for a corner, David Beckham swung in another right wing
cross and the Tobagan striker dived to head home from close range
in the 68th minute.
Five minutes later it was 3-3 thanks to Rivaldo's overhead kick
from eight yards after he collected Sergi's left wing cross under
pressure from Gary Neville.
Rivaldo also struck the Manchester United bar from 30 yards and
Schmeichel raced off his line to block Giovanni's shot with the
Brazilian through once again.
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