Empty seats, empty effort

SOCCER/Manchester Utd - 0 Lille - 0: There is nothing quite like one of those glorious European nights at Old Trafford. Unfortunately for Manchester United this, indeed, was nothing like one.

It was stale, dishevelled and, in the case of the red-carded Paul Scholes, there was a certain amount of ignominy attached too. It was difficult, in fact, to recall such an uninspiring performance from a club that purports itself to be realistic challengers for the European Cup.

Alex Ferguson can at least console himself that the damage to their chances of clambering out of Group D is probably only superficial. They are still unbeaten, with five points, and the same again in their final three games will see them reach the knockout phase.

All the same, there was a tremendous sense of moroseness within Old Trafford that they could be so prosaic. United had won back-to-back league fixtures since Ferguson was booed by the club's supporters after the Blackburn match last month, but last evening their failures rose to the surface once again.

The next assignment will also be against Les Dogues on November 2nd, a match that has been moved to the Stade de France because Lille's Stade Grimonprez-Jooris does not meet Uefa's requirements. The switch means Ferguson will get an early look at the venue for this season's final, but he will also be acutely aware that there must be a significant improvement from his team if he is to return to Paris on May 17th as anything more than a jealous onlooker.

The fans remain wholly unconvinced, too, judging by that most uncommon of sights at Old Trafford: empty seats. Ferguson would certainly have been dismayed by the attendance of 60,626, and even more so by the funereal atmosphere.

Perhaps it might have been different had the Wayne Rooney Show been in town, but with United's most penetrative player sitting in the stand, serving his two-match suspension for his now-infamous fit of pique against Villarreal, there were long spells when United looked devoid of flair and imagination.

The sum total of their first-half efforts was a diagonal Scholes volley that Lille goalkeeper Tony Mario Sylva palmed away, and a Ryan Giggs free-kick that flicked off his left-hand post.

By then, however, Rio Ferdinand and Mikaël Silvestre had contrived to give Peter Odemwingie an outstanding opportunity to open the scoring. Ferdinand should be held particularly culpable, as it was his uncertain header that ricocheted off Silvestre and left Odemwingie bearing down on Edwin van der Sar's goal. It was Ferdinand's good fortune that the sleek, athletic Odemwingie clearly has the soul of pickpocket, tumbling over an invisible wire once he had poked the ball beyond Van der Sar rather than making any concerted effort to score.

The Italian referee, Stefano Farina, was not duped.

Lille were surprisingly obdurate opponents but United's fans were still entitled to be frustrated by the lack of incision. Cristiano Ronaldo and Giggs flitted around the edge of the game while Ruud van Nistelrooy spent much of the night scowling at his team-mates, hands on hips. Darren Fletcher impresses with his enthusiasm and indefatigability but, as yet, the Scot does not have the ability to control the tempo of the game from midfield, a knack that Scholes once had but now seems sadly beyond him at the age of 30.

An inglorious night reached its nadir just after the hour when Scholes, having been booked in the 29th minute for a late challenge on Mathieu Bodmer, prompted Farina to reach for his pocket again, having brought down Jean Makoun.

There was still time for United to break Lille's spirit but United simply did not have the wit or guile to break down a side that had never before qualified automatically for this competition.

Guardian Service

MANCHESTER UTD: Van der Sar, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea, Fletcher, Scholes, Smith, Ronaldo, van Nistelrooy, Giggs (Park 83). Subs not used: Howard, Miller, Pique, Ebanks-Blake, Rossi, Martin. Sent Off: Scholes (63). Booked: Scholes, Ferdinand, O'Shea.

LILLE: Sylva, Vitakic, Tavlaridis, Schmitz, Tafforeau, Debuchy (Keita 83), Makoun, Bodmer, Chalme, Odemwingie (Moussilou 73), Acimovic (Dernis 60). Subs not used: Malicki, Cabaye, Gygax, Plestan. Booked: Schmitz, Vitakic, Tafforeau.

Referee: Stefano Farina (Italy).