Champions League 2006-2007: Lille vs Manchester United, Feb 20, 2007

Manchester United flew home clutching a priceless Champions League lead and left behind a storm of controversy that included a furious Lille coaching staff, who attempted to haul their players off the pitch before the final Lille keeper Tony Sylva was still lining his wall up when Ryan Giggs calmly stroked his free-kick into the top corner seven minutes from time to secure a 1-0 win. The home players raced to Dutch referee Eric Braamhaar, clearly unable to comprehend how the official had allowed the goal to stand. But Braamhaar was not for turning and triggered a quite stunning reaction from the home bench, with the signal clearly going out for the Lille players to head to the sideline and end the game. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and the contest continued, allowing United to claim a victory in a game which, until those bizarre last few minutes seemed set to be remembered for the chilling security scare inside the visitors end where fans seemed to get crushed in front of a 10 foot barrier. Mercifully, no-one was injured in the incident, although that was hardly due to the actions of the riot police, who fired tear gas into the enclosure. - Lille Vs Manchester United - Full Highlights - What Punishment Should Lille Face for nearly walking off the pitch? 'Lille should be thrown out of the competition. I don't care for what reason it happened but in this day and age no fan should have to be worried about getting crushed!!! Absolute disgrace. Get them out!!! United should just get a bye through - end of story. If they can't handle the big games they shouldn't be staging them. ' - happyhughes, Liverpool fan. 'lille are disgracefull! throwing there dummies out cos man u scored, That was a brave ref tonight, I think the french idiots goal should have stood and I cant see anything wrong with Giggs goal, the quick freekick has been happening for many seasons now and if your need ready for it, then its your own problem, Kick lille out of the champions league!!' - charWHUFC, West Ham United fan. 'What a disgrace Lille are, they should be kicked out of europe and man u be given a bye, Lille should also be banned from all european competitions! ' - henryequalsgod, Arsenal fan. 'Good games tonight in the champions league. But i feel very sorry for Lille. Just when it looked like it was going to be a similar result to Uniteds CL away ties of the past two years, the referee supposedly gives a quick free kick and his back is even turned when Giggs curles a free kick(which was a very good one by the way) over the wall and in. Very unlucky.But what goes around comes around.' - ezra, Chelsea fan. Sources: teamtalk.com, soccernet.com