Henrik Larsson produced a fairy-tale end to his brief but eventful Manchester United career on Wednesday as the Swedish legend scored to give the Red Devils a 1-0 win over Lille to put them into the Champions League quarterfinals.
United clinched the last 16 clash 2-0 on aggregate.
United’s joy, slightly marred by what appeared to be a serious injury to French defender Mikael Silvestre, was not mirrored by Premiership rivals Arsenal, whose season slid into crisis as they saw their last chances of silverware end when PSV Eindhoven held them to a 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium.
The Dutch went through 2-1 on aggregate.
PSV defender Alex scored an own goal but redeemed himself with a towering header late on to perhaps give Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger his worst fortnight at the helm, having seen his side beaten in a tempestuous League Cup final to Chelsea and eliminated in the FA Cup by Blackburn Rovers.
Worse still, star striker Thierry Henry appears set for several weeks on the sidelines after apparently tearing stomach and groin muscles after coming on as a substitute.
But if Wenger thought he had problems, then they are nothing on Real Madrid’s Fabio Capello, whose previous Midas touch has apparently deserted him in his second spell at ‘the meringues’, as his nine-time European champions slid out of the competition, going down 2-1 to Bayern Munich in Germany and exiting on the away goal rule as the tie ended 4-4 on aggregate.
Capello’s mood was hardly improved with Real giving away the quickest goal in Champions League history as Dutchman Roy Makaay scored within 11 seconds.
It took rather longer than that for AC Milan to finally break the determined resistance of Scottish champions Celtic — for whom Larsson starred for several years — as Kaka eventually broke the deadlock in the 93rd minute for Milan to run out 1-0 winners after extra-time, both on the night and on aggregate.
Larsson could hardly have scripted it better in making his last home appearance for United before returning to Helsingborg. He headed home after fine work by Cristiano Ronaldo to put the tie beyond a brave but limited Lille side.
Larsson, who also scored at Old Trafford on his home debut in the FA Cup, said there was no going back on his return to Sweden, despite United suffering a striker crisis at the moment.
”It’s been great here for me,” said Larsson.
”But what you have to remember is the Swedish season begins in April and it doesn’t give them [Helsingborg] time to get another striker.
”I have been proud to have been part of this team.”
Wenger tried to put a brave face on what is becoming an increasingly catastrophic season, despite his faith in the talented youngsters that make up his squad.
”It is a big disappointment,” said Wenger
”It’s cruel but you have to be strong enough to take it.”
Capello is as experienced in taking the highs and lows of management and the no-nonsense Italian was not about to throw in the white towel, even though his hopes of silverware this season are about as realistic as Wenger’s — though defeating arch-rivals Barcelona this weekend could change all that.
Celtic boss Gordon Strachan, unlike Wenger and Capello, is all but certain of winning the title this season — though admittedly in a much weaker league than the Premiership or the Spanish championship — so his thrust on being eliminated was rather more upbeat.
”If there was a Champions League trophy for sheer guts and determination, we’d win it,” he said.
”The tournament has been a great experience for us and we will learn from it.”
How Wenger must hope his youngsters will as well — alternatively he could have done with the old head of a Larsson. — AFP
