IT IS Alex Ferguson's quietly held belief that if Ryan Giggs can rediscover and maintain the form which made him a household name while David Beckham wasplaying for the Manchester United youth team, then United have a serious chance of repeating the achievements of last season when both the Premiershiptrophy and the European Cup made their way into the Old Trafford silverware cabinet.
A combination of last Saturday's display at Selhurst Park and last night here might convince Ferguson that Giggs is fast approaching that situation. Notonly did Giggs score the decisive opening goal, his first since before Christmas, and deliver the other on a plate for Teddy Sheringham with six minutes to go, the Welshman was the solitary United player whose performance befitted what was meant to be a major European occasion despite its routine feel.
Some came close - Beckham, Jaap Stain and Mikael Silvestre - but on a largely lacklustre evening from the reigning champions, Giggs's dash made the difference. "Ryan was excellent," said Ferguson. "He revels in Europe, his goalscoring record is good. He's at a mature age and hopefully we will see that maturity now."
The 45 minute delay before kick-off meant Giggs was even older when he took to the field, but then we all were. Ultimately all that was delayed was what hadseemed inevitable, a United victory against a side which has now failed to score in seven and three-quarter hours of Champions League football. Bordeaux were sporadically threatening but Sylvain Wiltord squandered their one genuine opportunity to equalise in the 58th minute. With Fiorentina defeating Valencia, the Italians and United are now favourites to qualify from the group. Bordeauxmust now beat United next Wednesday in the Gironde if their campaign is not to wither completely.
This game did, Giggs, Andy Cole and Roy Keane all coming off before the end, but then Liverpool are here on Saturday. All will return. Whether Mark Bosnich does is another matter. The United teamsheet will not have made for pleasant reading for the somewhat tubby Australian. Bosnich paid for what Ferguson regards as a general sloppiness of late and the price was a high one, Bosnich's place in the team.
"Mark didn't look sharp on Saturday," was all Ferguson would say on the subject.Raimond van der Gouw stepped in hut did not have a save to make.
Dwight Yorke was also missing, even from the bench, though of greater surprise was Paul Scholes's omission, a knock on the head in training being the explanation. But neither the delay nor the personnel changes affected United's fluency in the first half when they played their best football. From the firstattack Giggs was centrally involved, though he missed an invitation to score in the seventh minute.
Even at that stage it was clear that Bordeaux were not intent on purely defensive duties. The central midfield pairing of Michel Pavon and Johan Micoud were particularly progressive. In spite of this United gradually assumedcontrol. In the 16th minute a Beckham free-kick thumped the Bordeaux crossbar with the Bordeaux keeper Ulrich Rame flapping at mid-air and the effort wasa signal of United's growing dominance.
To Bordeaux it must have felt like a relentless red tide steadily coming in. On the half-hour only a quick rush from his line by Rame cleared the danger createdby Sheringham and Cole's neat interplay; Rame then caught a Cole volley from a Giggs cross. Giggs's contribution was increasing and three minutes beforehalf-time he climaxed another patient, intelligent United build up with, a shlick stabbed volley with the outside of his left foot. Beckham was the provider from the right. Giggs's touch sent the ball flashing through Rame.Even before the interval the advantage could have been doubled. Giggs, being allowed the room to roam at will on the left, was again the supplier of anotherinswinging centre and Butt, who had raced 30 yards to join the forward line, rather wasted his previous diligence by heading the ball wide weakly.
When Bordeaux began the second half as confidently and competently as they had the first, Butt's miss looked even worse. Only three minutes of the secondperiod had elapsed when Herve Alicarte placed an unchallenged header a yard wide from Corentin Martins's pedestrian free-kick and shortly after Beckham cleared a goal-bound header, again from Alicarte. United had lost some momentum and with it their way.
Two minutes before the hour they should also have lost their lead. United's players thought a German linesman was the involuntary participant in the Bordeaux surge by not raising his flag when Lilian Laslandes looked offside, but the linesman's non-lift meant that Wiltord would have scored a legitimate goal had he hit the target from Laslandes's unselfish pass. Yet with an opennet in front of him, Wiltord, the leading scorer last season in France, somehow contrived to hit the side netting.
United could claim that at the other end Cole was guilty of an equally startling aberration not Long after, fluffing a shot from six yards, but as United reasserted themselves Giggs swung in another cross and this time Sheringham, unmarked, could not fail to score with a six-yard header. Three more points pocketed a little too easily, it sounds like United in the Premiership.
Maybe Liverpool can ask harder questions.
MAN UTD: Van Der Gouw, G. Neville, Stam, Silvestre, Irwin, Beckham, Butt, Keane (Fortune 87), Giggs (Solskjaer 88), Cole (P. Neville 81), Sheringham. Subs Not Used: Bosnich, Cruyff, Berg, Wallwork. Booked: Giggs, Irwin. Goals: Giggs 42, Sheringham 84.
BORDEAUX: Rame, Grenet, Afanou, Alicarte, Bonnissel, Micoud, Martins (Ziani 65), Pavon, Diabate, Laslandes, Wiltord. Subs Not Used: Richert, Saveljic, Rouviere, Zanotti, Batlles, Feindouno. Booked: Rame, Alicarte. Referee: H Strampe (Germany).
Fiorentina stayed top of Group B after a 20th-minute penalty by Predrag Mijatovic gave them a 1-0 win over his former club Valencia last night. Rui Costa almost scored a second minutes later when his powerful shot flew just wide of the post. But Valencia weathered the storm and Gerard Lopez went close with a header from a Claudio Lopez corner.
The Spanish side grew in confidence and could have equalised with good efforts from Romanian striker Adrian Ilie and they almost salvaged a point in the finalminute when Farinos drove just wide from an indirect free-kick.
