UEFA SUPER CUP Manchester Utd 1 Zenit St Petersburg 2 IN THE end it was a disappointing evening for Manchester United, although it is difficult to imagine that, even if they had added the Uefa Super Cup to their collection, we would have seen Wayne Rooney pretending to drink champagne from the trophy or Alex Ferguson doing that uncoordinated little hop, skip and jump.
All week United have been insisting they would treat this game with deadly seriousness, but they got going only after falling two goals behind and suddenly realising that they were in danger of being outplayed.
Nemanja Vidic's scrambled goal gave them hope but even then it was not one of those onslaughts that are normally witnessed when United need a goal and the night ended in ignominious fashion for Paul Scholes when he used his hand to punch the ball into the net and was sent off for his second yellow card.
His punishment will be to miss United's opening Champions League against Villarreal.
There are other matters for Ferguson to consider too. Owen Hargreaves' late withdrawal, after his tendinitis had flared up again, is bad news and the question has to be asked: will Hargreaves ever be free of a problem he has carried for the past 16 months?
The expert opinion at Old Trafford is he will not, and that must be a cause of consternation for a player of 27 as well as for the club who paid €25 million for him 13 months ago.
The night began badly for Ferguson when he tripped over one of the television wires on his way to the dugout. Some of his players seemed a little unsure of their step, too. The evening of extravagant, attacking football Ferguson had predicted never materialised and United for long spells were unusually slow to the ball and shy of ideas in an attacking sense.
Carlos Tevez was the exception to the rule, on one occasion setting off on a magnificent run on the right wing, beating his marker twice and then cutting inside the penalty area to tee up Rooney. It was the sort of chance he should have gobbled up but the England striker hesitated, got the ball caught beneath his feet and the opportunity was gone.
Soon afterwards the night was lit up by red flares, hoisted in celebration of a goal scored on the verge of half-time, from the three sides of the ground where Zenit's boisterous supporters were congregated.
It was a soft goal for United to concede, starting off with Gary Neville giving away a corner that could easily have been avoided. Alejandro Dominguez whipped in his cross from the left, Igor Denisov exposed Patrice Evra's lack of inches by getting the first flick and the ball was looping into the goal even before Pavel Pogrebnyak got ahead of Scholes to apply the final touch at the far post.
That no one in a red shirt reacted was typical of how they had played for the preceding 44 minutes.
Zenit brought on the Tottenham Hotspur target Andrei Arshavin for the second half, which led to some difficult moments for Neville.
Zenit's second goal originated from a goal-kick, some uncharacteristic ball-watching from Rio Ferdinand and a glimpse of why the Uefa Cup holders were willing to pay £24 million to recruit the Portugal international midfielder Danny from Dynamo Moscow.
Danny's run was direct, fast and incisive, finishing crisply past Edwin van der Sar, but Ferguson will be concerned by Ferdinand's failure to anticipate and cut out the danger.
This was the signal for United finally to spark into life. In their first spell of pressure Rooney crossed to the far post where Tevez trapped the ball and then laid it into the path of Vidic, who scored with a low shot through a clutch of Zenit defenders.
There were chances for the substitutes John O'Shea and Park Ji-Sung to equalise but Danny should have made it 3-1.
Guardian Service
MANCHESTER UTD:Van der Sar, Neville (Brown 76), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher (O'Shea 60), Anderson (Park 60), Scholes, Nani, Rooney, Tevez. Subs not used: Kuszczak, Gibson, Campbell, Possebon. Booked: Scholes, Anderson, Tevez.
ZENIT ST PETERSBURG:Malafeev, Krizanac (Radimov 70), Aniukov, Puygrenier (Shirokov 62), Sirl, Zyryanov, Danny, Denisov, Tymoschuk, Pogrebniak, Dominguez (Arshavin 46). Subs not used: Contofalsky, Kim, Tekke, Faitzulin.
Referee:Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark).
