SOCCER/Uefa Champions League, quarter-final, second leg/Manchester Utd 7 AS Roma 1 Man Utd win 8-3 on agg:Manchester United obliterated Roma last night and stunned a worldwide audience almost as much.
Who could have envisaged the substitute left-back Patrice Evra scoring at all in this Champions League quarter-final, let alone making the score 7-1 in the 81st minute? This blistering display ranks with any in the club's dramatic history and those followers with a grievance over their treatment by the Italian police will long relish it.
United's manager had been confident enough about his team's attacking potential even before the game, but still perpetrated a memorable understatement.
"If we score tonight, and I think we will," Alex Ferguson had predicted in his programme notes, "we will pull this one off." It was a bold claim, unless he was being coy and had already enjoyed a premonition of what was to come. Roma had a sickly pallor and not only because Taddei, a scorer in the first match, took ill so close to kick-off that the team sheet had to be redrafted.
His place went to Mirko Vucinic, who had delivered the winner in the Serie A club's 2-1 success at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome last week. The adjustment to the attacking elements of the visitors' line-up was academic at Old Trafford when United were simply swamping them. Ferguson had opted to copy Roma's 4-2-3-1 system and his men looked far better suited to it.
The tactic meant Wayne Rooney was nominally stationed on the left, a piece of positioning that customarily has the crowd cursing the name of Ferguson's assistant Carlos Queiroz. Like most other things that United attempted, the ploy looked shrewd on the night. The logic of the battle plan also called for an unexpected selection.
Of the men available, Alan Smith was the appropriate choice for the role of loan striker, even though he has not started a Premiership fixture in the current campaign. Fully recovered physically from the broken leg suffered at Anfield last season, he had the strength that made him the ideal foil for all the players darting and spinning around him. Smith, in addition, took time off from that to score his first goal since November 19th, 2005.
United's presently depleted defence was of no relevance whatsoever when Roma's own back four were being subjected to perpetual torment. The fourth goal on the verge of the interval, from Ronaldo, must have extinguished any thoughts of a comeback.
The minds of Luciano Spalletti's team, in any case, were probably addled well before that.
With 12 minutes gone, Ronaldo jinked inside and passed to Michael Carrick, whose slightly bending finish from outside the area confused the static goalkeeper Doni and beat him at his near post. Five minutes later, Gabriel Heinze advanced on the left and picked out Ryan Giggs in the middle. Christian Chivu failed to cut out the Welshman's through ball and Smith was clear to take the chance with aplomb.
Roma had little to offer other than a conviction that letting fly from distance would disturb Edwin van der Sar, a goalkeeper who had just had a couple of awkward games. A free-kick from Franceso Totti came back off the Dutchman during first-half stoppage time, but United had struck a fourth goal moments before that.
In the 44th minute, Carrick swept play out to Ronaldo on the right and a demoralised Roma scarcely intruded as he cut inside to find the net at the near post with a low finish. More was to follow from the Portugal winger. A mere four minutes of the second half had gone when Roma lost the ball while trying to come out of defence. Play was fired instantly to Giggs on the left and while Smith could not quite connect with a low delivery, Ronaldo, at the far post, did force it home.
Serie A may be going through a troubled time at present but even so no one could believe that any of its members could be quite so frail. In truth United's achievement here must not be underestimated, considering that Roma had won 2-0 in France to eliminate Lyon in the previous round. A clean sheet was unimaginable for a team so devastated at Old Trafford.
"Are you City in disguise?" bayed the joyous home crowd. That was very hard on Stuart Pearce's team.
With an hour gone, United switched play sharply to the left, Heinze laid the ball back and Carrick placed the ball high past Doni for his second goal of the evening. It appeared vindictive for Ferguson then to take off a full-back, John O'Shea, in order to introduce another forward, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but the Champions League is no place for clemency.
Roma bought respite only because Daniele de Rossi volleyed home a Totti cross in the 69th minute. United, none the less, must be convinced that they are equipped to do the ultimate harm and leave all others in their wake this season by winning the European Cup for a third time.
Guardian Service
MANCHESTER UNITED: Van der Sar; O'Shea ( Evra 52), Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze; Ronaldo, Carrick ( Richardson 73), Fletcher, Giggs (r Solskjaer 61); Rooney, Smith.
AS ROMA: Doni; Cassetti, Mexes, Chivu, Panucci; De Rossi ( Faty 86), Pizarro; Wilhelmsson (Rosi 88), Vucinic, Mancini ( Okaka Chuka 90); Totti.
Referee: L Michel (Slovakia).
