Bayern stun Manchester United as Rooney limps off

Bayern Munich 2 Manchester United 1. It's official. Bayern Munich are United's bogey team. The two famous old clubs clashed last night for the eighth time in European competition, and for the seventh time the German side came away undefeated. As for United, not only will they have to turn round the 2-1 deficit in next Wednesday's second leg at Old Trafford, they might well have to so without talismanic striker Wayne Rooney.

The 24-year-old went down in the dying minutes of last night's dramatic match and left the Allianz Arena on crutches. "It's too early to say the condition of it, but we will know tomorrow [Wednesday]," said United manager Alex Ferguson later. "I don't think it's terribly serious... he had a kick in the ankle and is being treated by our medics."

With United playing Chelsea on Saturday in the top-of-the-table Premier League game Rooney's injury couldn't have come at a worse time, and every England fan will be praying it's not a similar foot injury to the one that curtailed his Euro 2004 and then affected his performance in the 2006 World Cup.

The mood had been so different within 66 seconds of last night's kick-off. United were 1-0 up and Rooney had his 34th goal of the season after he volleyed in Nani's free-kick from the edge of the six-yard box. The visitors continued to exert their dominance in the first quarter with Rooney causing palpitations in the Bayern defence every time he ran at them. He forced a sharp save from Hans-Jorg Butt with a long-range shot and Nani should have done better with his finish after a surging run into the Germans' penalty area.

And while United were failing to take their chances to kill off the tie, the home side began to find their feet with French winger Franck Ribery showing one or two delightful touches. With one dreamy chipped pass Ribery opened up the United defence for Hamit Altintop, but he failed to control the ball with only Edwin Van der Sar to beat. Not long after Ribery once again teed up a teammate with a well-directed cross but this time Ivica Olic failed in his attempt to level the scores.

Rooney should have extended United's lead at the other end five minutes before half-time after Darren Fletcher had skipped past Philipp Lahm and fired in a cross that had 'goal' written all over it. But this time Rooney had his sights all wrong and he shot straight into the arms of Butt.

In the second half it was United on the back-foot as Van der Sar defied his 39 years to pull off a series of agile saves as Bayern pressed for the equaliser. Olic, Thomas Muller, Altintop and Mark Van Bommel were all left cursing the Dutchman as he kept out their efforts and kept alive United's hopes of stretching their unbeaten away run in Europe to 17 matches.

But not even Van der Sar could do anything on 77 minutes when Ribery stepped up to take a free-kick just outside the United area. Ironically, it was another of United's veterans, captain Gary Neville, who had given away the free-kick with a blatant handball that would have shamed a Sunday league player. Ribery's free-kick was going nowhere dangerous until it hit Rooney in the visitor's wall and deflected past a stranded Van der Sar into the bottom right-hand corner.

If that sent the home crowd wild, then they went ballistic two minutes into injury time when Bayern capitalised on another error from a United defender. Patrice Evra dithered on the ball like an old lady searching for the change at the shop till, allowing Olic to steal in, snatch the ball and fire it past Van der Sar's despairing left-hand for the winner.

Understandably, Alex Ferguson wasn't smiling when he faced reporters later: "Our possession wasn't good enough," he said. "We kept giving the ball away and that caused us to defend when we didn't need to. But time and again, Edwin van der Sar made the saves to keep us in the game and we have to admit that. We scored early, but didn't play well. The disappointment is we gave the ball away too easily all night. Right from minute one, the possession wasn't up to our usual standard."

Nonetheless, Ferguson remains upbeat and is relishing the chance of rectifying the result when the two sides meet in a week's time. "An away goal is always an advantage and the tie isn't dead. Bayern have a strong chance, but on our own ground we should have a real chance of progressing. It's very tight." ·