Man United 2 Deportivo la Coruna 0
Ruud van Nistelrooy's double strike gave Manchester United a 2-0 Champions League Group D win over Spanish side Deportivo La Coruna at Old Trafford tonight.
Van Nistelrooy has now scored 29 goals in 30 Champions League matches for both former club PSV Eindhoven and United.
United took the lead in the seventh minute when, following Gary Neville's quick throw on the right, Paul Scholes sent over a cross and van Nistelrooy headed home past helpless Deportivo keeper Juanmi.
United should have gone 2-0 up in the 21st minute when Ryan Giggs, captain in the absence of Roy Keane and David Beckham, powered down the left hand side and into the box.
He squared the ball to Scholes but the England midfielder steered his shot wide with the goal at his mercy.
But it was not all one way traffic and Deportivo's Joan Capdevila should have done better than head wide from a 22nd minute corner.
However, it was United who were doing most of the pressing and in the 27th minute it was Van Nistelrooy's turn to head a corner wide.
But barely a minute later he did have the ball in the back of the net when he headed home Gigg's deflected cross - only to see Norwegian referee Tommy Skjerven disallow the goal for the striker's challenge on Juanmi.
Deportivo, though, repeatedly threatened on the counter-attack, testing a United defence without injured first-choice centre-backs Rio Ferdinand and Laurent Blanc.
And Jose Amavisca should certainly have done better than shoot wide of Fabien Barthez's left post after being played in by Juan Carlos Valeron.
Deportivo brought on striker Diego Tristan in place of Amavisca at half-time and in the opening minute of the second half he should have had a penalty after going down under John O'Shea's challenge.
But Skjerven was not interested.
The game was opening up as Deportivo went in search of an equaliser and in the 53rd minute Giggs brilliant solo run almost ended with a goal, the ball coming back off the post.
Van Nistelrooy followed up but his effort was ruled out for offside.
In the end-to-end battle unfolding Deportivo striker Roy Makaay then saw his shot well-blocked by Barthez.
But Van Nistelrooy was not to be denied a second goal. Superb work down the right from Scholes ended with Juanmi doing well to save Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's shot.
However, the ball broke to Van Nistelrooy, who rifled the ball in from point blank range in the 55th minute and this time the flag stayed down.
United suffered one final alarm inside the final five minutes when Makaay's back-heel from a free-kick was saved by Barthez.
But a goal at that stage would have flattered Deportivo.