Berbatov And Rooney Secure Win

Manchester United 3 - Celtic 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (29, 51), Rooney (77)

Team: Van der Sar, Evanso, Vidic, Neville (Brown 60), O'Shea, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Ronaldo(Park 82), Berbatov (Tevez 60), Rooney

Great result. We had a generous bit of help from the linesmen, but thoroughly deserved the victory.

McGready and Caldwell could've opened the scoring for Celtic in the opening moments of the game but Van der Sar was equal to their efforts. United started slowly, but gradually controlled the game and started to curve out chances to take the lead. Neville and Ronaldo found tonnes of space on the right but couldn't deliver the telling balls into the box.

Celtic failed to clear a corner from the left and O'Shea was first to the loose ball. His header back into the box eluded the Celtic defenders and found its way to Berbatov, who had incidentally strayed offside. The linesman on the farside stood static with his flag down, and Berbatov's deft touch directed the ball into the net. It was an untidy goal at best.

The goal brought out the best in us. At the start of the second half, we won a freekick in Ronaldo territory. His freekick was goalbound but Celtic keeper Boruc was only able to palm it down onto the path of Berbatov, who once again had strayed offside. And once again, the lineman did not flag. So with plenty of assistance from the assistant, we found ourselve two goals up.

A minute later, Rooney scored from an acute angle. This time the linesman flagged for offside although the Celtic defenders had played Rooney onside.

Rooney then curved out a chance from nothing, taking a speculative long shot that Boruc did well to palm over the bar. Either side of the Celtic keeper and we would have been celebrating a third.

Give his current form, Rooney was not to be denied. In a lightning counter-attack, Rooney finally added his name to the scoresheet. It was a sweet sweet goal to savour. It took about 10 seconds for the ball to leave Van der Sar's hands and end up in the opposing net.

We're currently sitting pretty on top of the group tables and a victory away from qualifying into the next round.

Just a couple of comments:

Nani - Has really improved in the last couple of games. His decision making is getting significantly better and he doesn't seem to lose the ball as much. And he doesn't try too hard to score, no longer taking wild shots from midfield. The kid is maturing before our eyes.

Fletcher - Superb job in midfield. He stamped the initial Celtic flurry. He's probably one of the reasons why we've been on this superb run of victories. It's no coincidence the moment he's playing over Carrick and Scholes, we've started to look like a team.

Brown - Can't help that he's being shafted by the return of Neville and the emergence of Rafael.

Evans - He's definitely a player. Did Rio's job extremely well today. No one got past him. The only reason why he's probably not been featured that much is probably because of the understanding between Rio and Vidic currently display.

Ferguson - Looks like he's gotten over losing Queiroz. We're back to playing 4-4-2, and playing Rooney in his favourite position. Continue to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) and the results will come.