Real Madrid 3 Manchester United 1Manchester United can never have dreamed that they would look a 3-1 defeat in the face and greet it with civility. Gary Neville and Paul Scholes will be suspended for the return leg, but the second part of this quarter-final is not wholly academic. A goal by Ruud van Nistelrooy halted a rout last night at the Bernabeu.
One of the Spanish sports papers had flatly declared this meeting to be the best game in the world. United had terrible difficulty in keeping up their end of the billing.
In under half an hour they were 2-0 down, indebted to the referee Anders Frisk for not awarding a blatant penalty and that the official was as absent minded as Fabien Barthez when the goalkeeper handled a loose ball outside the penalty area.
Yet, Real were not always savagely superior, not for a while at least. Alex Ferguson's team had the will to attack and dropped tantalising hints that they might distress the trophy holders. Maybe it was all just sleight of hand by Real, who often preferred to be conventional in the opening exchanges.
The truth shocked United. By the interval, Real appeared to have the perfect approach, switching suddenly from ambling manoeuvres to a hair-raising inspiration.
Real coach Vicente Del Bosque had welcomed this tie for the stimulus it would provide to a team who increasingly require a provocative test. They lead La Liga and the defence of the European crown proceeds, but there is something scatty about Real.
It might be post-World Cup fatigue or this long-serving squad could just have reached the stage where they need to be alarmed before they can feel utterly alive.
On Saturday, they were 1-0 down to Rayo Vallecano here before a batch of three very late home goals.
And, unfortunately for the other Champions League contenders, Real suffered nothing more than a fright in the last series.
Last night, though, they had the careful manner of men who carried a heavy responsibility. United were the lighter of heart for a brief while.
Paul Scholes thumped a half- clearance that forced Iker Casillas to a good save and Van Nistelrooy had just hooked an opportunity over the bar when Real scored.
Figo had come over to the left wing and his contact, in the 12th minute, may be debated as long as Ronaldinho's goal against England at the World Cup finals.
If this virtuoso of the cross was looking for the head of Raul, it was one of his feeblest deliveries. Or did he really have the nerve to shape a shot round Barthez and high into the far corner of the net?
Whatever the answer regarding Figo's intentions, United were confounded all the same.
After 20 minutes, Ronaldo was sent into the right of the area and befuddled Wes Brown before the defender thrust out an arm and leg to stop the Brazilian.
Yet Frisk saw nothing amiss, and he had no greater taste for intervention when Barthez pawed the ball 20 yards from his goal-line soon after.
But United were mistaken if they thought that luck would preserve them. After 28 minutes, Zinedine Zidane fed Raul, whose trickery on the turn had Rio Ferdinand floundering as he fired home low at the near post. It was his 42nd goal in the Champions League and United seemed for a moment to be capable of no more than gawping wonder.
And Real lashed in a third on 49 minutes. Figo's cut-back was measured, but the United midfield's inability to rush Raul was a token of the havoc wreaked on their minds by the course of this match. The striker's low, 20-yard shot was perfect.
All the same, United's character rarely vanishes. Gary Neville came forward in the 52nd minute and, when Casillas parried Ryan Giggs' shot, Van Nistelrooy was lurking to head home the loose ball.
An Old Trafford aficionado wouldn't have known whether to revel in the side's pluck or lament their technical inferiority to Real.
REAL MADRID: Casillas, Salgado, Hierro, Helguera, Carlos, Figo, Flavio, Zidane, Makelele, Raul, Ronaldo (Guti 83). Subs Not Used: Cesar, McManaman, Morientes, Portillo, Solari, Pavon. Goals: Figo 12, Raul 28, 49.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Barthez, Gary Neville (Solskjaer 86), Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre (O'Shea 58), Beckham, Keane, Butt, Giggs, Scholes, van Nistelrooy. Subs Not Used: Ricardo, Blanc, Forlan, Fortune, Fletcher. Booked: Gary Neville, van Nistelrooy, Scholes, Keane. Goals: van Nistelrooy 52.
Referee: A Frisk (Sweden).
