SOCCER CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/Manchester U 4 AC Milan 0 (7-2 on agg):LAST NIGHT needed every square inch of football heritage to conceal the drabness of the fixture. A capable team overwhelmed inept visitors. David Beckham eventually took the field as a substitute against his old club and was the perfect guest. The veteran won cheers for a shot that did no harm as the attempt was tipped over the bar.
Wayne Rooney, who reached 30 goals in the campaign with two strikes, had confirmed Manchester United’s passage to the Champions League quarter-finals as soon as he notched the opener. The entertainment continued to the 88th minute, when Darren Fletcher headed the last goal.
The fuss about Beckham’s return to Old Trafford overlooked the fact that he could hardly be the key to the visitors’ hopes. His mediocre outing in the first leg indicated strongly that the inevitable decline of a veteran is getting steeper.
At the very least, Milan had to score twice at Old Trafford. The task of keeping a clean sheet, however, had always looked an impossibility. There could have been some tension to the night when a free-kick from the right glanced off Nani and went straight to Ronaldinho after eight minutes, but the Brazilian’s header went wide with the goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar almost motionless.
Rooney is rather more practised at that art and his opener was the seventh consecutive goal he had nodded home. The striker took his 29th goal of the campaign by getting in front of the centre-half Daniele Bonera to glance a Gary Neville cross past a helpless Christian Abbiati. The visitors had come with an attacking intent, but they also brought to Manchester the same basic vulnerability that had afflicted them in Milan.
Even if they had been rigorous, Rooney might still have been their undoing. The series of headers is something of a quirk, yet that string of goals highlights the movement essential to a striker who is not all that tall. By and large, there is no marker to out-jump because Rooney has left him trailing. The opener hurt Milan, but there was also collateral damage to the fixture itself.
Leonardo’s side did not get much encouragement although they were often in possession. Before half-time, excitement was restricted in their efforts to counter Rooney’s goal, although Van der Sar fumbled an Andrea Pirlo attempt. This fixture appeared so tame that United were simply required to maintain their professionalism.
The visitors had to seek a lot more than that. They introduced Seedorf for the second half, but the removal of Bonera proved more relevant because the middle of their defence was disturbed. The midfielder Massimo Ambrosini had been reassigned to that post but the back four were left helpless when possession was surrendered cheaply.
Nani, from the left, crossed expertly with his right foot in the 46th minute and Rooney shot past Abbiati for his 30th goal of the campaign. A finish with boot rather than brow was the sole element of surprise. Uncertainty involved nothing more than the ultimate margin of victory. Whatever else Milan lack, they retain enough self-respect to go mounting attacks and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar might well have done better than to head high from Ignazio Abate’s delivery.
By then, United, with the match won, were too composed to be careless. With 59 minutes gone, Paul Scholes slid through a pass that Park Ji-sung converted for the third goal.
This was a chastening night for Milan.
MAN UTD: Van der Sar, Neville (Rafael Da Silva 66), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Scholes (Gibson 73), Park, Valencia, Nani, Rooney (Berbatov 66). Subs not used: Kuszczak, Jonathan Evans, Obertan, Diouf. Booked: Scholes.
AC MILAN: Abbiati, Abate (Beckham 64), Bonera (Seedorf 46), Thiago Silva, Jankulovski, Flamini, Pirlo, Ambrosini, Huntelaar, Borriello (Inzaghi 68), Ronaldinho. Subs not used: Dida, Gattuso, Zambrotta, Favalli. Booked: Ronaldinho, Flamini.
Referee: Massimo Busacca (Switzerland).
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