SOCCER: Uefa Champions League/Manchester Utd 4, Dynamo Kiev 0 Manchester United guaranteed qualification from Group F like a team in a hurry and, on this form, they will be in a rush, too, to begin the next phase of the competition.
Alex Ferguson's team look like a side that means business and their immaculate record in this season's competition was never going to be endangered by a side of Dynamo Kiev's limitations.
Sporting Lisbon's draw with AS Roma confirmed the safe passage of Ferguson's men and Ferguson will be glad to have the job done.
Gerard Pique, their stand-in centre-half, set them on their way last night with his first goal for the club and Carlos Tevez doubled the lead before half-time.Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo added the final flourish on an evening of such superiority that Ferguson could afford to rest, among others, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Owen Hargreaves.
This was a night when Pique took Ferdinand's place in the centre of defence, Darren Fletcher was assigned the role of midfield playmaker and Danny Simpson was promoted from the reserves to fill the right-back position. In total there were five changes from the side that locked horns with Arsenal last weekend but, as gambles go, Ferguson's selection made perfect sense given that Blackburn Rovers, one of the Premier League's in-form sides, will form the opposition at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Kiev had not won a point in Group F and, to trace their last victory in the Champions League, it would be necessary to go back to November, 2004 - or March, 2000, in a game outside their own country.
It said a lot about United's opponents that the Ukrainians could be seen taking souvenir snaps of one another before kick-off. There are not many duff teams in this competition but Kiev's record is so poor that their club badge could conceivably be a wooden spoon and the only surprise when United took the lead was that it was their first serious attempt at goal and it had taken half an hour to get there.
Pique, who spent last season on loan at Real Zaragoza and impressed the Spaniards so much they did everything they could to persuade him to sign a permanent deal, was making his first start in the Champions League and it will matter little to the former Barcelona youth player that his goal was a rather scruffy affair.
Ronaldo whipped in a free-kick from the right only for Michael Carrick's glancing header to ricochet off Tevez in a congested penalty area. A heavy sigh reverberated around Old Trafford in the split second that it dawned on the crowd that Tevez may have inadvertently cost his team-mate a scoring chance. Pique, however, had followed the trajectory of the ball and, as it looped to the far post, jumped impressively to head the rebound past Olexandr Shovkovskiy in goal.
Until that point United's performance had been, at best, six out of 10. Edwin van der Sar, captaining United on a night when he was 11 years older than anyone else in the team, was barely called upon to dirty his kneecaps but it is a common problem when Ferguson rests so many of his first-choice players that the team do not play with the drive and urgency usually associated with their home games.
A better team than Kiev would have sought to take advantage but any encouragement the visitors had taken from the early exchanges floated away like smoke once Pique opened the scoring and, six minutes later, Ferguson could relax.
This time Tevez won the ball in the centre circle and set off towards goal, running at the heart of the Ukraine defence. A swift exchange of passes with Rooney was followed by a shot that was too powerful for Shovkovskiy.
The result was such a formality now that Ferguson brought on his substitute goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak at half-time, with Van der Sar passing the captain's armband to Nemanja Vidic. It later emerged that Vidic was close to finalising the details of a new contract that will double his current salary.
Kuszczak had been on the pitch barely four minutes when he was called upon to save Diogo Rincon's powerful shot.
It was the first time Kiev had attacked with any purposeful intent but there was never any hint of a comeback and an unusually hesitant Tevez ought to have added to the score when Rooney set him up after 59 minutes.
No matter. Rooney swept in the third himself from Nani's right-wing delivery after 76 minutes and there were at least half a dozen more opportunities before Ronaldo got in on the act, cutting infield from the left and lashing in a diagonal shot to make it five games in six that United have scored four.
MAN UTD:Van der Sar (Kuszczak 46), Simpson, Vidic, Pique (Evans 72), Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Nani, Fletcher, Rooney, Tevez (Saha 67). Subs Not Used: Brown, Anderson, O'Shea, Eagles. Booked: Rooney. Goals: Pique 31, Tevez 37, Rooney 76, Ronaldo 88.
DYNAMO KIEV:Shovkovskiy, Fedorov, Vashchuk, El Kaddouri, Markovic, Diakhate, Rotan (Rebrov 46), Correa, Gusev (Rincon 46), Ghioane, Milevskiy (Bangoura 76). Subs Not Used: Rybka, Gavrancic, Ninkovic, Dopilka. Booked: Diakhate, Correa.
Referee:Jan Wegereef (Holland).
