Bayern Munich knock Man United out of Europe

Manchester United 3 Bayern Munich 2 (4-4 on aggregate, Bayern win on away goals). It started with a surprise and ended with a stunner, and in between there was a stinker and a sinner. All in all last night's Champions League quarter-final tie between United and Bayern lacked for nothing in drama, but the ultimate outcome is bitterly disappointing, not just for Manchester fans but for English football in general. With Arsenal dumped emphatically out of Europe by Barcelona on Tuesday, United's exit means that for the first time since 2003 the Premier League isn't represented in the last four of the Champions League.

The surprise was the inclusion of Wayne Rooney in the United starting line-up, just eight days after the in-form striker had limped off with what appeared to be a serious ankle injury. But the 24-year-old was declared fit enough to take the field, and was soon involved in the thick of the action. His neat pass after just three minutes to Darron Gibson opened up the Bayern defence, allowing the Irishman to rifle the ball past  Hans-Jorg Butt into the visitors' net. That was the stinker, as far the Bayern fans were concerned, a lame attempt at a save by the German keeper who allowed himself to be beaten at the near post from the edge of his area.  

Four minutes later Butt was on his backside once more as Antonio Valencia's cross to the six-yard box was met with a superb back heel from Nani into the bottom left-hand corner. At this point in the game Butt and his teammates were wearing a look not too dissimilar from Manuel Almunia at the Nou Camp a day earlier – sheer disbelief. A sloppy clearance kick from Butt landed at Michael Carrick's feet and his snap shot almost added to Bayern's misery, and Rafael wasted a surging run into the German penalty box by blasting wide when Rooney was free to his left. It wasn't the first – or last – error of judgement from Rafael.

Nani showed Rafael how it should be done when he made it 3-0 on 41 minutes with his second goal of the night. Valencia, having once again waltzed past Holger Badstuber, crossed from the right and the Portuguese midfielder finished in style.

The United faithful celebrated like they believed they were already in the last four, and perhaps the confidence seeped on to the field, for a lapse in concentration from Michael Carrick allowed Ivica Olic to pounce two minutes later and narrow the deficit to 3-1

Then five minutes into the second half came Rafael's sinful act. Having been booked in the first-half for a petulant trip, the Brazilian pointlessly pulled back Franck Ribery and was shown his second yellow of the card. It was a long walk to the tunnel for Rafael, plenty of time for him to think about the hole he had just dug for his teammates.

In an effort to bolster the United defence as a consequence of Rafael's moment of madness, Alex Ferguson replaced Rooney with John O'Shea, but he was as helpless as the rest of his United teammates against Arjen Robben's stunning goal on 74 minutes. It was a left-foot volley from the edge of the United area, as sweet as anything Lionel Messi could conjure, which flew low past Edwin Van der Sar's right hand into the corner.

It was nothing more than Bayern deserved. Having appeared down and out after just seven minutes the Germans displayed wonderful resilience to haul themselves back into the game, helped by the indiscipline of Rafael.

Unfortunately Ferguson's graciousness deserted him in the face of the painful defeat and the United manager blamed Bayern rather than Rafael for the sending off.  "No doubt about it, the sending-off changed it," fumed Ferguson. "Rafael is a young boy, but they got him sent off. Everyone sprinted over to the referee - typical Germans. They got him sent off, it was only a slight tug at Ribery. Jesus, he was 35 yards from goal.

"Rafael is inexperienced and sometimes that inexperience can show itself, but he was having a marvellous performance and it's a tragedy for him. I thought Bayern were typical professionals in the way they saw the opportunity and forced the referee. The ref wasn't going to do anything but they forced him to get a card out. But we've seen that before from teams like that."

Not surprisingly Bayern boss Louis van Gaal begged to differ. "Part of being a footballer is control," he said. "Every player must know that if he picks up a yellow card, a second means a sending-off. Every player should know that. My players knew that and that those who were booked carried on professionally. I believe it was a yellow card offence and that Rafael was guilty of the foul. I think Sir Alex said what he said because he was disappointed." ·