Wayne Rooney's penalty drives Red Devils into last 16 of Champions League
Result: Rangers 0 - Manchester United 1
Manchester United eased into the last 16 of the Champions League with the help of late penalty from star striker Wayne Rooney while the defeat takes Rangers into Europa League.
A penalty was awarded in 87th minute when Steven Naismith’s high challenge on Fabio da Silva caught the referee's eye. Rooney before converting the penalty had also struck the crossbar with a 1st half header.
United dominated the match with a lot of possession but failed to create many clear cut chances. Rangers best chances fell to striker Kenny Miller when his header just got off target and his shot from close range was easily saved by the Dutch keeper Edwin
van der Saar.
United didn’t show their best form and still managed to extend their unbeaten run to 28 games without too much trouble. However, the match was considered as a comeback game for Rooney as he started for United for the first time since October. He was under
a lot of pressure to perform and although his performance throughout the match was somewhat rusty, he did however, on a few occasions, show some brilliant touches. After scoring the penalty, the striker's confidence would be high and that would surely be a
positive sign for United.
Rangers’ side was visibly weakened as they were missing Madjid Bougherra, Sasa Papac and Maurice Edu from their lineup. A defensive reshuffle did a commendable job as they restricted the mighty Red Devils throughout the match. For a team who needed to win
the match in order to have any chance to progress in the competition, they looked too timid in attack.
It could have been a disastrous start for the home team had the referee awarded the penalty in the first few minutes of the match. They would also consider themselves fortunate since it looked as if Steve Davis awkwardly clattered into Dimitar Berbatov.
Other than that there were no clear goal scoring chances in the game until the late penalty, which proved to be a decisive blow for the Manchester team.
The United boss was full of praise for the out of form striker Rooney, as he was brave enough to take the penalty that took them into the last 16. He said that the player showed lot of courage as he didn’t have a very good game and missed a couple of chances.
According to the manager, Rooney still didn’t show any nerves while taking the penalty as he fired the ball in the bottom right corner of the goal.
The England striker was also a relieved man after scoring only his 2nd goal of the season.
Rooney said: “I knew what I was doing and where I was going. I can only do that. If the keeper guesses the right way and saves it, so be it. Thankfully it went in.
Obviously it is a bit of a relief for me to score. Hopefully I can build on this now."
He added: “Hopefully I can go on a goalscoring run now but really I am just delighted to be back playing again. I felt good. I felt fit throughout the game. I want to build on this performance and this goal."
Fergie has now set his sight on finishing top of Group C. That can only happen if they manage to beat Valencia in their last game.
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