David Moyes believes Manchester United could be a dark horse to win the UEFA Champions League after his men rallied from a 2-0 first-leg deficit to take the two-game Round of 16series against Olympiakos, 3-2, on aggregate. Speaking to the press after the game, Moyes admitted that his team, which is currently 7th in the Premier League table, would likely be considered anunderdog in the next round.
“I suppose we will be underdogs in the draw, but I genuinely believe this club is capable of winning it,” Moyes said. “If we show our capabilities, which we haven’tdone too often, we can be a match for any team. After Sunday’s performance [the 3-0 home defeat by Liverpool], we needed to bounce back and we did it in style with this victory. It was a really goodresult in Europe, we came from two goals behind. It means we have got ourselves another two games in the Champions League, something we will really look forward to.”
Dutch strikerRobin van Persie scored all three goals in the win at Old Trafford, but was stretchered off at the end of the game following a challenge from Kostas Manolas. However,Moyes doesn’t’ think the injury is too serious.
Wayne Rooney, van Persie’s striking partner, hailed United’s fans for sticking with the team during aturbulent campaign. “We had a desire to win, and as you can hear from the fans now and against Liverpool, they were fantastic and they deserved this,” he said. “We owed ourselves [a resultlike this] and the fans, the manager, everyone. This a great result and hopefully it can kickstart our season.”