Dutch master law unto himself

Manchester United 2 VFB Stuttgart 0An uncomfortable sense of déjà vu might be afflicting the supporters of Manchester United.

Reports in Spain are strongly linking Real Madrid with a move for Ruud van Nistelrooy although, even in their wildest dreams, the Spaniards can hardly hope to find Alex Ferguson anywhere near as accommodating as when he was trying to offload David Beckham last summer.

As the Dutchman showed last night he is simply irreplaceable. Van Nistelrooy's goal was not only the catalyst for this deserved victory, a result that means United qualify for the knockout stages as Group E winners, but also equals Denis Law's record for the club of having scored 28 European goals.

The difference is van Nistelrooy has done it in 29 games rather than the 33 it took Law. Equally as impressive is his record of 95 goals in 123 games for United, including 51 in 52 at Old Trafford. Ferguson can only hope the stories in Spain - "The Next Galactico is van Nistelrooy," chimed the front page of Marca yesterday - come to nothing.

United will certainly go into the last 16 in high spirits. Theoretically the runners-up face a tougher draw in the last 16 because they must play one of the group winners. In other words, winning Group E means bypassing the likes of Milan and Real Madrid when the draw is made in Switzerland on Friday.

Nevertheless there are still plenty of formidable obstacles lining the route to the quarter-finals. Ferguson will have been acutely aware, for instance, that the list of runners-up, depending on tonight's results, might incorporate Bayern Munich, Juventus and Internazionale, plus the competition's leading scorers, Monaco, and English football's bête noir, Galatasaray.

About the only certainty is that, under UEFA's guidelines, United cannot be drawn against either Chelsea or Arsenal - or Stuttgart again, for that matter - until the quarter-finals.

The lack of obvious rewards seemed to stifle United for long passages, as if they were uncertain whether to charge forward with carefree abandon or if this was a night for avoiding injuries and going through the motions.

There were mixed signals from the manager, too. Ferguson had kept back Tim Howard and Roy Keane for more important assignments, notably Saturday's Manchester derby, but otherwise it was a strong side, with Paul Scholes back from injury and Ryan Giggs patrolling the space behind van Nistelrooy.

Stuttgart's attitude helped. This was their first visit to Old Trafford and they played with the sense of purpose that equates to being top of the Bundesliga, with 12 clean sheets in their opening 15 league fixtures.

Even so, the home side were entitled to their first-half lead, not least because of the sense of injustice they had felt earlier in the match. Twice in a minute Old Trafford was entitled to be outraged by a basic oversight of the rules by a trigger-happy linesman.

First van Nistelrooy was ruled offside when it was clear he had been running on to a misplaced back-pass from Stuttgart's Hungarian forward Imre Szabics. Didier Grenier, the French official in question, then compounded the error by raising his flag against Ryan Giggs, who had received the ball directly from a Quinton Fortune throw-in.

It is not known how fluent Giggs is in French, but he and several team-mates made their point.

Giggs then squandered United's first opportunity but he was instrumental in van Nistelrooy's goal. John O'Shea started the move from left-back and Giggs eluded Andreas Hinkel before delivering a cross that was so inviting it would have been positively rude for van Nistelrooy to turn it down.

From six yards, the rest was a formality, even if goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand did get a hand to the ball.

The second half was much like the first, with United just having the edge and van Nistelrooy a constant menace. Their second goal was classy in its creation and clinical in its execution. This time the roles were reversed.

Van Nistelrooy's ability to shield the ball and some fancy footwork helped him elude a couple of challenges on the left of midfield. As more Stuttgart players were drawn towards him, his reverse pass wrong-footed the entire defence to leave Giggs scampering clear before rolling his shot calmly beyond Hildebrand.

Ferguson was entitled to be enamoured. Last night was, after all, the anniversary of the lowest point of his Old Trafford career, when a 2-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace in 1989 culminated in a banner being unfurled in the old Scoreboard End: "Three years of excuses and we're still crap - tara Fergie." It is beginning to feel like a trick of the mind.

MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-1-1): Carroll; G Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea; Fletcher, P Neville, Scholes (Djemba-Djemba, 79), Fortune; Giggs (Forlan, 70); van Nistelrooy (Bellion, 70). Booked: Fortune.

STUTTGART (4-1-3-2): Hildebrand; Hinkel, Meira, Wenzel, Lahm; Soldo; Vranjes (Tiffert, h-t), Heldt, Hleb (Centurion, 75); Szabics (Cacau, h-t), Kuranyi.

Referee: E Poulat (France).