Manchester United reached second base in the Champions League last night comfortably enough although their finishing was more reminiscent of Babe Ruth than Bobby Charlton considering the number of times shots ended up in the crowd.
No matter. Alex Ferguson's players have returned to the quarter-finals of the tournament looking like a team capable of winning it whereas last season they were simply grateful to be taking part.
At Old Trafford last night Kosice were again beaten 3-0 though with slightly more difficulty than the victory by a similar score with which United had begun the present campaign in Slovakia's September sunshine. Until the 85th minute the sides were only separated by the goal Andy Cole had scored shortly before half-time. Then Lubomir Faktor, one of the Kosice substitutes, unluckily put the ball past his own goalkeeper and in stoppage time Teddy Sheringham, who had been as wasteful as anyone despite his own impeccable distribution, eased his conscience with an excellent third goal.
The victory saw Manchester United immediately installed as 9 to 4 favourites to become the first English club to win Europe's most prestigious club trophy since Liverpool won it for a fourth time in 1984. This seems a mite premature in view of Real Madrid's Champions League form this season. Then again United have won all their matches, the only team to do so.
So far they have been joined in the last eight by Dynmao Kiev, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. Juventus, whom Manchester United will greet in Turin in a fortnight's time as group winners, are now struggling to qualify as one of the two best runners-up.
The Italian champions' 2-0 defeat against Feyenoord on Rotterdam on Wednesday had hastened United's arrival at the threshold of the quarter-finals. Last night they only needed to draw to go through and there were periods in the match when the players appeared set on achieving the maximum through the minimum.
Yet it was still a well-rounded performance let down only by the predictability of final passes and the ordinariness of some crosses. Paul Scholes again emerged as the craftsman supreme, pulling the strings and levers in midfield and consistently setting United in motion with his sweeping passes to either wing.
If anyone deserved to score it was he, but Scholes came no closer than hitting a post early in the second half. Eventually Sheringham's vision disturbed the earlier efficiency of Kosice's close marking sweeper system, although his was the worst miss of the night when he scooped the ball over the bar from less than three yards during a period of profligacy towards half-time which recalled the home encounter with Feyenoord.
The depth of talent available to Ferguson, despite the injuries keeping Roy Keane and Denis Irwin out of the side, was again evident after half-time when Ole Solskjaer replaced Nicky Butt and later Ryan Giggs and Phil Neville gave way to Karel Poborsky and Henning Berg.
Scholes begins a three-match Premier League ban when second-placed Blackburn Rovers visit Old Trafford on Sunday and Ferguson is expected to keep Solskjaer in his attack alongside Sheringham and Cole. This combination destroyed Sheffield Wednesday at the start of the month, hastening David Pleat's departure from Hillsborough.
Kosice provided more obdurate opposition last night. From time to time Vladislav Zvara and Jozef Kozlej ran boldly at United's defence, quick to find gaps and ensure that Peter Schmeichel did not spend the evening as a spectator. But damage limitation was never far from Slovakian minds, a point emphasised by the decision to play Robert Semenik, one of the country's most prolific strikers, in the sweeper's role.
Manchester United quickly discovered that, while Kosice were prepared to allow them space in the middle third of the pitch, the ranks of white shirts were apt to close whenever Sheringham or Cole attempted to find space near goal through the middle. Giggs achieved the evening's first accurate shot, a rising drive that Ladislav Molnar was glad to punch clear. At this point Old Trafford wore its carnival hat, fully expecting a victory parade to the quarter-finals.
Yet as a pass from Sheringham, flicked on by Butt, bounced off Cole's foot while other attempted through balls did not even get that far it became clear that Kosice had not come to Manchester simply to lay down their arms. Eventually, however, United went ahead in the 36th minute.
Sheringham's pass to Beckham was true and Beckham's low ball found Cole turning sharply away from Marek Spilar with the sweeper away checking his brooms. Cole, his confidence in the Champions League buoyant after the hat-trick in Rotterdam, scored through Molnar's legs.
A series of near-misses straddled half-time, the most forgivable of them the 20-yard shot Scholes drove against a post. United were winding down when the second goal arrived five minutes from the end, the ball rebounding into the net off Faktor after Molnar had parried a shot from Poborsky.
Sheringham's postscript, from Beckham's pass, was superb, a shot curling inside the right-hand post. "We've learned a lot from last season," said Ferguson. True enough, and if the learning process continues then graduation may well be achieved this time.
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