Manchester United's Wayne Rooney says he did not dive against Bayern Munich

Wayne Rooney of Manchester United looks on as Bastian Schweinsteiger of Bayern Muenchen receives his first yellow card from Referee Carlos Velasco Carballo.

Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney has come forward to defend himself after being accused of diving and sending Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger off during their Champions League quarter final encounter at Old Trafford last week.

“I thought it was a foul,” said Rooney as quoted on the Guardian. “If I didn’t get out of the way he could have hurt me. I didn’t try to get him sent off.”

“It could have gone either way. He could have hurt me, he’s gone in with his studs and the referee has booked him, so it’s not my decision. It’s not nice to see anyone sent off and I didn’t try to get him sent off. The referee has made a decision. I’ve tried to stop myself getting hurt and the referee has had a decision to make.”

The tie which was expected to be one sided ended in a closely contested 1-1 draw with one of the highlights of the match was the sending off of Schweinsteiger who was sent off after securing a second yellow card.

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“He’s a great player and he’s obviously someone they will miss – and Javi Martinez as well being suspended – but they have a great squad of players who can come in,” Rooney added. “They are favourites for the tournament and it will be a tough ask but we needed to give ourselves a chance and we have done that. We have to go and score and [we are] disappointed to have conceded but we defended really well as a team and probably had the better chances and probably disappointed we didn’t win.”

“They play a high line and with a little more composure we can exploit that. If we were a bit more composed in front of goal maybe we could have won the game.”

While referring to Danny Welbeck’s miss, Rooney felt the English striker had a good chance. “Danny had a good chance. We have watched videos of their goalkeeper and he’s a bit like [Peter] Schmeichel, that he likes to come out of his goal, so it’s a bit disappointing that he tried to dink him and didn’t score but he will learn from that. I am sure if he gets a chance over there he won’t do that.”

“We had the better chances and are disappointed we didn’t take at least one more but they are the European champions and we have seen them go to Arsenal and win 2-0 there it’s a decent result. We have to focus and make sure we put everything into it. It’s a massive game for our season, so we have to make sure we are ready.”

Talking about the second tie, Rooney said: “It’s a fantastic stadium to play in, to go there with the chance to knock them out, with them being the holders of the competition, it’s a massive incentive for us and we are looking forward to it.”

Schweinsteiger will serve a one-match ban owing to the red card, and will miss the return leg which will be played at the Allianz Arena which will be played on April 9.

In a poll conducted in our site, 110 fans thoughts it was a dive, although 158 fans agreed with referee Carlos Velasco Carballo’s decision.