Owen Scores a Hat Trick, Leads Manchester United to 3-1 Win over Wolfsburg

After a great season of Champions League football, Manchester United traveled to the Volkswagen Arena to take on VfL Wolfsburg in their final Champions League match in 2009.

Going into the match, United were without Nemanja Vidic, Edwin Van de Sar, Wes Brown, Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney, and Dimitar Berbatov, among others. 

This forced the Red Devils' younger players to step up and deliver.

So, after some improvising, Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had midfielders Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher join Patrice Evra on defense for the match.

Meanwhile, for Armin Veh's side, they were looking to get into the UEFA Champions League knockout stage for the first time in their history with a victory at home.

But if they failed to win, CSKA Moscow would advance to the knockout stage.

Early on in the match, Wolfsburg was denied a penalty, when Michael Carrick took down Makoto Hasebe inside of the penalty area.

Afterward, Wolfsburg had several great chances but couldn't find a way to score. Both Andrea Barzagli and Zvjezdean Misimovic's respective headers went over the bar.

During all of this, United had several great chances to take the lead, but their shots continued to go wide of the net.

But, after Hasebe got denied of a goal by a great save by United keeper Tomasz Kusczak, United got a great chance before the half, and it was Michael Owen who was able to score off a pass from Nani to give Manchester United a 1-0 lead at halftime.

To make matters worse for Wolfsburg, Milos Krasic was able to score for CSKA Moscow to give the Russian side a 1-0 lead at halftime against Besiktas.

With this goal, CSKA Moscow would have gone through to the knockout stage, and Wolfsburg would be heading to the Europa League.

However, Wolfsburg came out of the gate at the beginning of the second half, as they started to build pressure on the United goal, and Edin Dzeko was able to score on a header for Wolfsburg in the 55th minute off a great pass from Marcel Schafer, tying the match at one. 

Even with this goal, CSKA Moscow would have gone through based on points.

After the goal, Wolfsburg continued to attack needing two goals in order to advance onto the knockout stage, but the makeshift United defense was able to stop Wolfsburg's relentless attack.

In the 71st minute, Grafite's shot was stopped by a great save by Kuszczak, and Wolfsburg then replaced Ashkan Dejagah for Makoto Hasebe and Karim Ziani for Grafite to bolster the Wolfsburg attack.

United responded to this by subbing Gabriel Obertan for Danny Welbeck and Antonio Valencia for Nani just two minutes later.

After the replacements, Wolfsburg dominated until United got a great counterattack started with just nine minutes of regular time remaining, and it was the young French winger Obertan who was key, as he was able to beat three Wolfsburg defenders as he passed off to Owen, who scored his second goal of the match and gave United a 2-1 lead.

After being held off for a few minutes, Owen, determined to get his hat trick, beat Benaglio and scored his third of the game giving United the 3-1 win.

This was a great performance by Manchester United with their patchwork defense in Wolfsburg, and they managed to win even though Wolfsburg put together a good game.

With this result, Wolfsburg is now eliminated from their first-ever Champions League campaign and will play in the Europa League, while United have won Group B with 13 points.

CSKA Moscow won on a late goal by Yevgeny Aldonio to give CSKA Moscow a 2-1 in Istanbul over Besiktas.  They finish as the runners-up in Group B and also have advanced in the Champions League.