Panathinaikos 0-5 Manchester United Manchester United have sent a warning out to the rest of Europe with an emphatic 5-0 win at home to Panathinaikos. Sir Alex Ferguson's side have got their bid to win the Champions League off to a perfect start, but while they were uncontrollable in the first half the Greeks were very disappointing and it will surely get harder from here on in. United almost took the lead inside the opening minute, but Ruud Van Nistelrooy headed Ryan Giggs' cross off-target. The following ten minutes were fairly poor from the home side with Antonios Nikopolidis not seeing much action. However, on 12 minutes United began steam-rolling the opposition. Phil Neville's tame shot from the edge of the box was needlessly parried behind for a corner by Nikopolidis. From the resulting corner Mikael Silvestre took advantage of terrible defending to give United the lead. The home fans were still celebrating when Quinton Fortune made it 2-0. The South African midfielder fired home after Giggs laid Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's unintentional cross into his path. The Greek league leaders had a break from the onslaught, but Michalis Konstantinou failed to test Tim Howard with a weak effort on goal after 22 minutes and the action quickly returned to the other end of the pitch. Three minutes later Giggs had a free-kick punched clear by Nikopolidis after the Welshman had been brought down by Goumas. Dimitrios Papadopoulos headed a corner wide of Howard's goal before United scored their third and match clinching goal. For the third time this evening Giggs was the provider as he picked out Solskjaer, who shot first time. However, while his effort was low and on target it never should have beaten Nikopolidis, who embarrassingly let the ball fumbled into the net. With five minutes of the first half remaining Nicky Butt emphatically headed home John O'Shea's cross to further stretch United's lead. One blow for United was that Solskjaer had to leave the field at the end of the first half with a slight knock. He was replaced by summer signing David Bellion for his Champions League debut. Nikopolidis was replaced at half-time after his shocker and his replacement Kostas Chalkias had a quieter 45 minutes, as United took their foot of the gas with Sunday's Premiership match with Arsenal in mind. However, they still managed a fifth goal with seven minutes to go, as second half substitute Eric Djemba-Djemba scored his first goal for United from close range.
No real surprises Teams: Manchester United: 14-Tim Howard; 2-Gary Neville, 3-Philip Neville, 5-Rio Ferdinand, 22-John O'Shea (24-Darren Fletcher 57), 27-Mikael Silvestre, 8-Nicky Butt (19-Eric Djemba-Djemba 57), 11-Ryan Giggs, 20-Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (12-David Bellion 45), 25-Quinton Fortune, 10-Ruud van Nistelrooy. Panathinaikos: 1-Antonis Nikopolidis (12-Konstantinos Chalkias 46); 2-Rene Henriksen, 4-Silvio Maric, 5-Giourkas Seitaridis, 8-Giannis Goumas (10-Joel Epalle 46), 11-Dimitrios Papadopoulos (23-Emmanuel Olisadebe 62), 14-Raimondas Zutautas, 16-Sotirios Kyrgiakos, 18-Lucian Sanmartean, 19-Michalis Konstantinou, 30-Panagiotis Fyssas. It is just such a huge loss for Panathinaikos. I hope as the group stage progresses they earn some points, at least to make it to the UEFA Cup.
Panathinaikos are not used to relevant performances in Europe... They will need a lot of work and luck to come back from such a defeat both due to the goal difference and due to the fact that Shum (who was not greeted with joy by the fans when apointed) failed to gain their trust by handing them the biggest defet in recent PAO history... Bad evening for PAO
Disagree I don't think that it was Shum's fault. I think that Panathinaikos was purely outclassed. Last year PAO lost to PAOK Thessaloniki 4-1. That was probably a bigger loss. Manchester United closed down very well on defense and the Greek side couldn't muster up anything. With that squad, not even Sir Alex Fergusen could have beaten Manchester United.
Goumas man to man on Giggs and you are telling me it was not Shums fault!? Even Henricksen looked lost as All the United Strikers lured the PAO defence open for UTD defenders to have shots at goal! But yes... its never only the coach. However if someone was more at fault there then this man was Shum!
Shum looks like an amateur, his tactics suck, he should leave now, the team plays like they are still in pre-season, we havent played so badly in Europe for over 10 years, even Ferguson looked shocked at how we performed, it was a disgrace!