Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's knack of turning matches from the bench and late goals from Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy spared Manchester United another evening of frustration in the Champions League last night and put them into the last eight.
Alex Ferguson brought on the Norwegian striker after van Nistelrooy had missed a penalty. Then Juan Sebastian Veron saw a wonderful free-kick around the Olympiakos wall hit a post.
But with 11 minutes remaining, the Dutchman turned past two defenders to set up Solskjaer for a shot driven hard into the roof of the net. And, with two minutes to go, an inspired pass from Veron found Giggs outpacing the defence to touch in United's second. Van Nistelrooy completed the scoring in injury-time.
Manchester United could have ill-afforded further slip-ups. Six nights earlier, in losing at home to Deportivo, they had turned Old Trafford into a skidpan of banana skins. Now Ferguson's players, lacking Roy Keane with a knee injury, had to watch their every step.
Three points from a simple, straightforward victory were what was required. Yet little that United do is simple and straightforward; this, after all, is a large part of their appeal. But there are occasions when the plot demands a minimum of melodramatics, and last night was one of them.
Their main hope of blowing the opposition's cover lay, as ever, with the speed and penetration of Ryan Giggs whether on the left wing or suddenly cutting through the middle, as is his wont.
Olympiakos often formed an orderly queue to stop Giggs turning their defence, but the Welshman's first meaningful centre all but led to United going ahead in the seventh minute.
Picked out by one of those radar-controlled cross-field passes that are the speciality of Juan Sebastian Veron, Giggs flighted the ball to the far post where van Nistelrooy rose imperiously to nod the ball down hard. Only an exceptional save by Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos denied the Dutchman a goal.
Attack-wise, then, Manchester United were their usual selves but it was not long before the balding Yugoslav pate of Predrag Djordjevic was to be found setting up infiltrating movements in that space between midfield and back four which in Europe, and particularly at Old Trafford, United's opponents find so inviting.
Just past the quarter-hour, Djordjevic, released on the left by a quick long pass from Christos Kontis, found Alexios Alexandris near the penalty spot only for the ball's bounce to defeat the Greek striker. Another minute and Eleftheropoulos was punching clear a sharp shot from Veron, two more and David Beckham met a lay-off from Giggs with shot wide of the near post.
Certainly there was little wrong with the entertainment. But, again, all was clearly not well with United's central defence and midway through the first half a lack of communication between Laurent Blanc and Wes Brown allowed Alexandris to stay onside as he ran on to a through ball from Dimitrios Mavrogenidis.
After 63 minutes, van Nistelrooy failed to score with his first attempt and was then fouled by Eleftheropoulos when he tried to force the ball past the goalkeeper.
The penalty was considerably delayed by Greek protests and then van Nistelrooy saw his kick saved by the offender.
MANCHESTER UTD: Barthez, Gary Neville, Brown, Blanc, Irwin, Beckham, Butt (Solskjaer 72), Scholes, Veron, Giggs, van Nistelrooy. Subs Not Used: Carroll, Phil Neville, May, Chadwick, Yorke, Silvestre. Goals: Solskjaer 79, Giggs 88, van Nistelrooy 90.
OLYMPIAKOS: Eleftheropoulos, Mavrogenidis (Poursanidis 45), Kontis, Amanatidis, Anatolakis, Giannakopoulos (Roberts 83), Patsatzoglou, Karembeu, Djordjevic, Ofori Quaye, Alexandris (Alvez 62). Subs Not Used: Georgiou, Bermudez, Kostoulas, Niniadis. Booked: Djordjevic, Anatolakis, Kontis.
Referee: Manuel Melo Pereira (Portugal).
