Van Persie hat-trick salvages United’s season

Friday, 21 March 2014 03:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Robin van Persie’s hat-trick lifted the gloom surrounding Manchester United and manager David Moyes as the English side beat Olympiakos Piraeus 3-0 to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit and reach the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday. United, mounting a dismal defence of their Premier League title in Moyes’s first campaign since replacing Alex Ferguson, kept alive their last remaining hope of lifting a trophy this season.

Asked to show character by their manager, United responded with Van Persie showing a clinical edge that has been missing of late while the recalled Ryan Giggs was also instrumental on his first start since late January. Van Persie began the Old Trafford comeback with a 25th-minute penalty, awarded after he had been shoved in the back by Jose Holebas. The Dutchman levelled the tie on aggregate in first-half stoppage time, steering in Wayne Rooney’s cross and Van Persie completed his hat-trick with a free kick six minutes after the break that left Olympiakos keeper Roberto rooted to the spot. Moyes, who cut a defiant figure this week despite his troubled start, praised a “magnificent team performance”. “There were no passengers tonight, everyone fought their corner and we played some really good football,” the Scot told a news conference after United joined Premier League leaders Chelsea as the only English representatives in the last eight. “It’s especially pleasing as we did not play well in the first leg in Greece but came back strongly tonight. “We might not be favourites to win the Champions League this season but if we go into the quarter-finals as underdogs that’s fine by me. With this squad this club can be more than a match for anyone.” Giggs provided the passes for two of the goals on his 140th appearance in the competition, just two off the record held by Raul. He said: “It was always going to be tough not to concede a goal and to score three goals but we managed it. The crowd got us over the finishing line. Hopefully tonight can be the turning point in our season.” Only twice in their long European history had Manchester United recovered from a 2-0 first leg defeat to advance, the last time 30 years ago when they came back from the same first leg score to beat Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate in the European Cup Winners Cup quarter-finals. They also had history on their side with Olympiakos having lost all of their previous 11 European matches in England and had not scored a goal against United in their two previous meetings at Old Trafford.