Can United net the big fish: - (Bayern Munich)

David Moyes practically bounded down the touchline after Manchester United’s improbable comeback against Olympiacos on Wednesday night. There was a spring in his step and a beaming smile on his rugged features not seen at any point during a torturous first season at Old Trafford. As he punched the air in front of the Stretford End it felt big, like a high water mark and perhaps a turning point leading to the dawn of brighter and better things at long, long last.
If Moyes was still on a high following Wednesday’s thrilling events at Old Trafford, then Friday morning’s quarter-final draw will have sent him crashing back down to earth. Had United got, say, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid or maybe even Paris Saint-Germain as their next continental assignment, there would have been a feeling that they could defy their unfamiliar status as underdogs and progress a little further in Europe.. What Moyes and United most definitely didn’t want was to draw Bayern Munich.
Those three magical minutes in the Nou Camp in 1999 aside, United have a woeful record against the Bavarians. They have won only one of their four home matches against Bayern and even in their 3-2 success in the 2009-2010 quarter-finals; they crashed out on away goals.

These two old rivals have never been so far apart. Twitter, never forgiving, was quick to point out that the first leg at Old Trafford on April 1 will see the irrepressible Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery directly up against Alexander Buttner. Buttner has made a mere 21 appearances for United and is completely unproven at this level, but he will be pressed into action at left-back because Patrice Evra is suspended. Somehow, Moyes must figure out some ingenious way of causing Bayern’s machine-like midfield to malfunction - not once, but twice. It is time for him to step up and show his managerial acumen. Ribery, Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Toni Kroos, Mario Gotze and their free-flowing friends up against Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Phil Jones and Rio Ferdinand. Could get messy. This is, by popular consensus, the worst United midfield in a generation and there is a real danger they will be exposed to the point of humiliation by Europe’s best team.

This record-breaking Bayern team - unbeaten in 50 Bundesliga matches with 119 goals scored and just 24 conceded in 41 fixtures this season - are the most formidable team it is possible to face in football right now. Guardiola has taken what he inherited from his Treble-winning predecessor Jupp Heynckes and incredibly managed to enhance it in keeping with his image. So the question is, can a United back-line of Rafael, Ferdinand, Jones and Buttner stem this tide and hope to keep them out? Most will rephrase that as ‘how long can they keep them out?’ Nothing in football is impossible, however, and it would be unwise to write United off even when they are the least fancied in a field of eight. n contrast to the miserable defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, there were encouraging signs in many areas of the field against Olympiacos .But then again it’s a bad news for United supporters that their star man Robin Van Persie is again injured so players like Welbeck, Hernandez must step up. What’s more, there was a bit of the old United in evidence - gutsy, defiant, and refusing to believe the tie was up following their tragedy in Greece a few weeks earlier. It was a distant echo of the spirit of ‘99 If, and it’s one hell of an if, all these positives come together, everyone plays to the top of their game, and a little bit of fortune goes their way, United could beat Bayern.
The improbable can happen in football, but how often can odds be defied? Maybe they can get Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Teddy Sheringham on the bench as a good luck charm.