Wayne Rooney heads his first of two goals for
Manchester United against Milan at Old Trafford. Photograph: Jason
Cairnduff/Action Images
Rumours of Wayne Rooney struggling for fitness
have clearly been greatly exaggerated. Either that or a rest at
Molineux last Saturday did him a power of good. He was certainly
fit enough to carry the United attack on his own tonight, after his
alleged over-exertion on the Wembley turf for England, and anyone
keeping even half an eye on events these past couple of months will
appreciate that that rendered Manchester United's progress into the
Champions League quarter-finals
something of a formality.
Rooney was not able to manage the full Nicklas Bendtner and
neither could United emulate Arsenal's five goals, yet Milan are
not Porto and Rooney's double was thoroughly impressive. The
Italians defended with surprising naivety, and missed good chances,
but the encouraging news for United, England and anyone else with
an interest in goalscorers at the top of their profession was that
no one could match Rooney for quality of movement or decisiveness
of finish. He settled the tie as early as the 13th minute.
Everything that followed was mere decoration, even if it must be
allowed that the way United opened up Milan for Rooney's second,
before he went off just after the hour, will have given them
every encouragement for the rest of the tournament, as will a
notable aggregate scoreline.
Having put themselves in a strong position in Milan, it was
disappointing for United to concede a late goal that allowed the
Italians hope, but Sir Alex Ferguson's assessment was that if his
side scored at home it ought to be enough to guarantee progress.
There was some debate among United fans about whether Ferguson
would select an attacking line-up or pack the midfield, yet the
fact that Dimitar Berbatov was on the bench was misleading. While
the Bulgarian has been in decent form, his pairing with Rooney is
not necessarily United's best option. Most of the unstoppable
performances Rooney has put in this year came up front on his own,
and here was another one. The 3-2 win at San Siro – where United
had never scored, let alone won – was achieved with a similar
formation.
Predictably, Rooney had the first shot of the game, the first
couple of shots actually, though Ronaldinho also came close to
opening the scoring with a header before United found inspiration
from an entirely unexpected source. Gary Neville was in the side
for his experience, Ferguson putting a high value on the commodity
for big European nights, though having seen him struggle against
Matt Jarvis in the 45 minutes he played at Wolves the United
support was fearful of what might happen when he was asked to
contain Ronaldinho. They need not have worried. Neville got forward
and caused Milan problems of his own. He had sent a dipping shot
narrowly over the bar and won a commanding header on halfway by the
time he sauntered down the right and sent over the cross from which
Rooney opened the scoring.
Milan have no excuse for not knowing about Rooney's heading
ability after San Siro, so perhaps they assumed he would not be
able to leap past Daniele Bonera or to beat Christian Abbiati from
12 yards. Rooney turned a good cross into a great goal with a
header from the days when centre-fowards had centre partings. Even
more remarkably, for a player with much more to his all-round game
who has only recently begun to display the positional sense and
timing to make heading an effective part of his repertoire, it was
Rooney's seventh consecutive headed goal. Any old-fashioned
centre-forward would have been proud of that, particularly as few
of them were routine.
While United held only a one-goal lead the tie was theoretically
open, but the second half was barely a minute old before Rooney's
30th goal of the season put it to bed. Taking advantage of a sprint
down the left by Nani and a perfectly judged pass inside, Rooney
reached the ball ahead of Abbiati and pushed it into the net. Game
over, with due respect to Park Ji-sung's strike, Darren Fletcher's
first European goal and David Beckham's introduction. The sequence
of headed goals was over too, though that is hardly important when
a scorer is in such imperious form.
While Beckham crossed as well as ever, rolled back the years
with a spectacular volley that almost caught Edwin van der Sar off
guard and generally looked as if he should have started the game,
he no longer has the ability to influence outcomes
single-handed.
United and England now have someone else who can do that,
although if Beckham seizing a green and gold scarf for a
photo-opportunity at the end means his next fight will be against
the Glazers, at least his money will come in handy. He may not be
Goldenballs any longer, but he can still be a Red Knight.