The fans who came to Old Trafford to watch Champions League live, would have remembered the seven goals scored by Alex Ferguson’s side the last time these two teams met. A repeat was not meant to be and in the early stages of the match both teams took a very cautious approach with Roma having the better of the chances to open the scoring against the Premiership side. However the Manchester United keeper Tomasz Kuszczak, was equal to these efforts even though this was his European debut.

Gianluca Curci in the Roma goal was equally busy as Wayne Rooney, Ronaldo and Saha all had chances to open the scoring, but on many occasions simply missed the target. With the clock running down fans started to feel unsettled by the lack of quality finishing and for some the thought of a draw must have been creeping into their minds but as with most of the great sides around the world, it only takes one moment of quality to win the match.

In this case it was left to striker Wayne Rooney on 70 to score his first goal of the season and what turned out to be the winning goal of the match. Having made a run forward he received a ball from the Portuguese youngster Nani and unleashed a first time shot in typical Rooney fashion, which eluded the Roma keeper and flew into the net off the upright much to the relief of all those watching.

Roma manager Luciano Spalletti must have been disappointed as his players did have the chances to take at least a point from the game. For now they must be content with a joint second place in a very close group.