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Basel end dreams of faulty United

by Tony Cuddihy , 07 December 2011

Manchester United are out of the Champions League after a 2-1 defeat to Basel in Switzerland on Wednesday evening.


Marco Streller stunned the visitors by grabbing a first half opener, before Alex Frei doubled their advantage as time ran out.

Phil Jones did halve the deficit in the dying minutes but United could not get the equaliser they needed to go through to the knockout stages.

United started off brilliantly, with Ji-Sung Park shooting over from the edge of the area and Wayne Rooney just failing to play in the South Korean, but it was Basel that took the lead inside ten minutes.

Chris Smalling and Nemanja Vidic clashed to allow Fabian Frei to cross the ball in. Streller was on hand to fire through a mess of bodies to the crowd's delight.

United pressed and pressed but found Yann Sommer in fine form, while Rooney and Nani were all industry and no accuracy, and the Premier League side were dealt another massive blow when Vidic was carried off with a serious knee injury.

Alex Frei curled a brilliant free-kick goalwards in the 54th minute but David de Gea palmed it away expertly, before Steinhofer volleyed a dreadful ball on to his own crossbar and Ashley Young was not able to capitalise.

The first sign that it was not to be United's night came when Rooney fired over from two yards with 20 minutes remaining, and a tough task was made impossible when Shaqiri's sublime pass was missed by Chris Smalling and Alex Frei stole in to head home.

Jones made it 2-1 after Federico Macheda had hit the crossbar, but by then it was too late and United were heading for the Europa League.

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