Manchester Utd 1 Barcelona 0 (Manchester Utd win 1-0 on agg):EUROPE MAY not be overly enthused about the prospect of the first all-English Champions League final and its Russian hosts are sure to view it with particular unease but the mood was utterly euphoric last night at Old Trafford, where an early goal from Paul Scholes proved enough to earn his side a clash with either Chelsea or Liverpool on May 21st in Moscow.
Alex Ferguson's men were made to work hard late on to defend the lead but they clearly edged a gloriously intense contest, turning in the markedly improved performance their manager had called for to record their 12th consecutive home win in Europe.
As the Russian national anthem blasted out over the stadium sound system at the end, the visitors were left to rue missed half chances late on but they had no complaints. Their hosts had dominated the first hour of the game, during which they dominated midfield and created enough chances to put the outcome beyond doubt.
Only late on, when they had nothing to lose, did Barca start to get behind the United defence and even then Edwin Van der Sar was not required to make a save of note.
With Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic failing fitness tests, Ferguson's was forced to juggle his resources but there was still room for at least one surprise, Nani preferred to Anderson despite his poor display at Stamford Bridge over the weekend.
Ronaldo pushed into attack alongside Carlos Tevez while Ji-Sung Park retained his place out wide, from where, if nothing else, a couple of his crosses left the Barca defence in some difficulty.
At times, though, Carles Puyol and co were effective authors of their own misfortune, Eric Abidal, in particular, looking vulnerable to pressure from Tevez and Nani on United's right flank.
The latter's best moments came at set pieces and he really should have had a goal four minutes before the break when he did well to get between the French full-back and Gabriel Milito in order to meet Park's finely weighted ball from the left only for his glancing header to somehow fly wide of the target.
United were already a goal up by then. With the contest still settling down just short of the quarter-of-an-hour mark, Ronaldo had dropped deep to pick up the ball but it was Gianluca Zambrotta who had unintentionally lined the shot up for Scholes with his sliding challenge on the Portuguese and from some 25 yards out the midfielder's first-time strike flew high past Victor Valdes and into the top-right corner.
During the spell that followed, Ferguson's men could easily have had another one or two, Valdes riding his luck on a couple of occasions, Park side-footing wide from just inside the area after good work by Ronaldo, and Wes Brown failing to connect properly with a floated Tevez cross.
The Spaniards at this stage were managing to retain possession only when they settled for passing it back and forth across their back line, and their occasional attempts to hit their opponents on the break were beset by misplaced passes and fractionally mistimed runs.
Gradually, though, they got a foot in the game. Lionel Messi, on whose talents this Barcelona team has come to depend to an unhealthy extent, had made his first impression midway through the half when Patrice Evra's run left space for the winger, whose shot was well saved by Edwin Van der Sar.
Now he began to exert a little more influence down the right, while Xavi, Deco and Andres Iniesta managed to string a few passes together. The result was Barca's best spell of the opening period, which yielded shots from Deco and Samuel Eto'o that weren't far off the mark.
As at the Camp Nou, though, their attempts to play the ball through the United defence almost invariably came to nothing, Brown and Rio Ferdinand proving solid behind Michael Carrick.
Eto'o did little to trouble the pair and after Frank Rijkaard had initially tried to shake things up early in the second period by bringing on Thierry Henry to partner him up front, the Cameroon international was himself replaced by young Bojan Krkic, with the former Arsenal player reverting to the left.
Though under more pressure now from a side sensing both the seconds and their season were slipping away, United still managed to carve out chances at the other end, where Tevez forced Valdes into a decent stop, Nani fired wastefully high after a fine run and Ronaldo saw his low effort skip just wide.
With the crowd knowing only too well a single goal would still be enough for the visitors, each miss seemed to increase the tension, and when Henry headed from close range into the grateful arms of Van der Sar, all but the relatively small travelling support among the 75,000 crowd breathed a sigh of relief.
The locals had to endure another scare as the game moved into injury-time, as Xavi's lofted ball sent Deco clear only for the midfielder's first touch to let him down at the crucial moment.
Brown got back to block the delayed shot and while the sight of Evra being stretchered off may prompt some concern as thoughts start, slowly, to turn towards Saturday's game against West Ham, last night's celebrations were raising the roof almost before he reached the tunnel.
MANCHESTER UTD:Van der Sar, Hargreaves, Ferdinand, Brown, Evra (Silvestre 90), Park, Scholes (Fletcher 76), Carrick, Nani (Giggs 76), Ronaldo, Tevez. Subs not used: Kuszczak, Anderson, O'Shea, Welbeck. Booked: Carrick, Ronaldo.
BARCELONA:Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Abidal, Toure Yaya (Gudjohnsen 88), Messi, Xavi, Deco, Iniesta (Henry 60), Eto'o (Bojan 72). Subs not used: Pinto, Edmilson, Sylvinho, Thuram. Booked: Zambrotta, Deco, Toure Yaya.
Referee:Herbert Fandel (Germany).
