Manchester United-Lyon: Devils Earn Draw with Late Equalizer

Manchester United met Lyon last night in the Round of 16 clash in France.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side were full of confidence having thrashed Arsenal 4-0 in the FA Cup. Lyon came into the game on the back of 1-0 defeat at the hands of Le Mans in the French Ligue 1.

United played Rooney as the lone man upfront,with the trio of Hargreaves, Scholes and Anderson in midfield.

Ryan Giggs started on the left wing in his 100th Champions League appearance. United's Portugese goal machine Cristiano Ronaldo (27 goals) started on the right.

Early in the game,Lyon made no secret of the fact that they would not let the English Champions run them over. When Giggs put Rooney through near the half hour mark United could have taken the lead had it not been for a fine save by Veteran keeper Gregory Coupet.

Lyon were relying on the likes of Benzema, Govou and Toulalan to get them a goal. Juninho came relatively close with an odd freekick for Lyon, and Cristiano Ronaldo's presence was relatively irrelevant as he hit the wall and fired wide with his occasional strikes for United.

Ronaldo had been frustrated by Lyon after he was taken down several times and earned numerous freekicks. The duo of Sebastian Squillaci and Jean Alain Boumsong did extremely well to keep United's offense at bay.

It was 0-0 at the break and Sir Alex Ferguson's plan of overloading the midfield to gain possession and score on the counter attack in the first half had failed. His defense of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic did very well to stop Benzema and Kalstorm from hitting the back of the net.

Lyon's decision of not including wonderkid Hatem Ben Arfa in the starting lineup raised a few eye-brows as many were hoping to see how he would perform with Ronaldo on the opposing team.

Karim Benzema broke United's resistance in the 54 minute,when he took a quick low, left-footed snap shot that put Lyon in the lead; the shot went in after hitting the woodwork, and Lyon fans were overjoyed.

Sir Alex then sprung up one of his own moves when he brought on Tevez and Nani for Scholes and Giggs respectively. Lyon were in the lead and decided to make a few changes too.

Carlos Tevez had gotten a few opportunities to ruin Lyon's night. He might have provided United an equalizer had Rooney not tapped in a finish when he was offside.

Tevez, however, once again came to United's rescue very late in the game. Nani crossed the ball in wide from the right and the ball looped up after deflecting of Fred. It sat perfectly in front of Tevez, who gratefully tapped in the equalizer from six yards out.

The goal made sure United did not suffer defeat and more importantly earned an away goal for the Red Devils. If United do go through after the second leg at Old Trafford, then it would largely be because of this crucial goal from Tevez.