David Beckham had an immediate impact at San Siro when
Ronaldino scored following the English midfielder's free-kick, but
he was substituted after 72 minutes against his former team-mates.
Photograph: Stringer/Italy/Reuters
Two members of Manchester United's 1992 FA Youth
Cup-winning side were on show at San Siro last night but it was the
unexpected one who made the most extraordinary contribution to the
evening's seemingly endless parade of entertainment. In terms of
execution the goal with which Paul Scholes ended United's 52-year
wait to score against Milan on their home ground could
hardly have been less in keeping with the occasion.
As Scholes aimed to meet Darren Fletcher's cross on the volley,
the ball completely missed his swinging right boot and cannoned off
his standing leg, trickling into the net off the far post. Milan's
defenders stood and stared in horror. At half-time the home
supporters jeered the replays on the big screen. And as if to
italicise the disdain, in the final minutes of the match Clarence
Seedorf studiously applied a backheel to Ronaldinho's cutback to
register exactly the sort of deft, technically immaculate goal you
would once have expected from Scholes.
It was Scholes, however, who had put United on the path to one
of their more famous victories. Unorthodox the goal may have been
but it was the reward for a period of brave and sustained, if
somewhat haphazard, attacking and opened the way for Wayne Rooney
to silence the Milan fans with a couple of bulldozing headers.
Still, this was a gala night in one of football's great theatres
and just you try keeping David Beckham out of it, particularly
with his England manager in the dress circle. In the third minute,
before the stadium had time to draw breath, Patrice Evra fouled
Alexandre Pato and up stepped the man of the hour. A long free‑kick
from the right, an overhead clearance from Evra, an instant volley
from Ronaldinho, lurking unattended on the edge of the area, and a
deflection off Michael Carrick past the wrong-footed Edwin van der
Sar. There, Fabio Capello. Your trip was not wasted.
It was a scruffy goal, by Milan's suave standards, but it seemed
to justify Leonardo's decision to restore Beckham to the starting
line-up in place of Gennaro Gattuso. Not that the coach would have
dreamed of leaving him out on such an occasion. La Scala needs
its stars and so does San Siro. It was not looking so clever 70
minutes later, when Beckham gave way to Seedorf after achieving
little else.
In purely footballing terms, of course, Milan have a bigger star
than Beckham, and Ronaldinho's presence constantly illuminated the
match as he tormented Rafael, his young compatriot, with flicks and
darts, all of which had the crowd sighing with delight. Milan
could have been three up by the time Scholes produced his
comic-opera goal – which came, it should be noted, at the end of
the best piece of collective interplay of the night, a move of at
least 10 passes involving half a dozen players. Had the attempted
volley made a proper connection, it might have been acclaimed as
one of United's best goals in Europe.
Gattuso's absence had certainly helped Scholes to enjoy his
evening. Lying deep, he was able to take his time on the ball
before distributing it with generally unerring precision as United
strained to cancel out their earlier misfortune. Nowadays he does
not often enjoy such freedom in domestic fixtures.
It was strange, too, that with such an unsightly piece of work
he should become the United player to achieve what none of his
predecessors had managed in the four European Cup away legs against
Milan stretching back to 1958. Among those unable to make their
mark at San Siro were such prolific strikers as George Best, Denis
Law, Bobby Charlton, Dennis Viollet, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan
Giggs. Not one of them had been able to find a way past defenders
bearing the names Schnellinger, Nesta and Maldini, and such
goalkeepers as Lorenzo Buffon, Fabio Cudicini and – until last
night – Nelson Dida.
For all Milan's late surge and Seedorf's marvellous goal,
United's chance of sealing this tie must surely be strengthened
by the inexperience of Leonardo, who took charge last summer. This
is the 40-year-old World Cup winner's first coaching job. It is
quite a place to start, you might think, quite a gamble on Silvio
Berlusconi's part and quite a dramatic contrast with the other
coaches the English club encountered in their earlier meetings with
Milan, all of which ended in defeat: Giuseppe "Gipo" Viani in 1958,
the great Nereo Rocco in 1969 and Carlo Ancelotti in 2005 and 2007,
none of them allowing the teams of Jimmy Murphy, Matt Busby and
Alex Ferguson to score in the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
And when United finally achieved that objective last night,
there could be only amazement that a match full of such open,
entertaining, skilful, imaginative football should turn first, and
then turn again, on a couple of acts that were undoubtedly part of
the action but were in a sense completely divorced from it.
Eventually, thanks to Rooney, a degree of normality prevailed as
United so thunderously completed the first part of their assault on
history.