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18 October 2006, by Sean Gillen

Swashbuckling United too strong for Danes

Manchester United 3-0 FC Copenhagen

Manchester United maintained their 100% start in the Champions League with a comfortable victory over FC Copenhagen at Old Trafford. Goals from Paul Scholes, John O’Shea and Kieran Richardson made it three wins from three for the Red Devils against the spirited Danish side.

Alex Ferguson welcomed back Cristiano Ronaldo from injury, and the Portuguese took his place on the left wing as United deployed a 4-4-2 formation. The result was an open game, with Copenhagen’s positive attitude making for an entertaining evening.

The visitors were lucky, however, not to concede inside the first thirty seconds, after Wayne Rooney touched Michael Carrick’s throughball into the path of Louis Saha, only for the in-form forward to shoot straight at Copenhagen goalkeeper Jesper Christiansen when through on goal.

Rooney, so desperately needing a goal, was then gifted an excellent chance by Ronaldo, who found space on the left of the penalty area and stroked a well-timed ball across the box, only for the English striker to divert the ball wide with an outstretched leg.

After United’s good start, Copenhagen caused the home side a few problems. Silberbauer had two efforts on goal before Marcus Allback turned on the edge of the box and shot, forcing van Der Sar into a smart save low to his right.

Rooney, who appears to be well on the way back to his top form, then created another excellent chance for Saha, but the Frenchman continued to show a lack of composure and the impressive Christiansen foiled United’s top goalscorer once more.

Summer signing Carrick hit a well-struck effort from 20 metres, only to find Christiansen equal to the shot, before Paul Scholes finally broke the deadlock with five minutes left of the half. Saha laid the ball off to the midfielder, who set himself before dispatching a crisp 20-metre drive to finally beat the Danish ‘keeper.

Ronaldo goes close

Almost immediately Ronaldo could have made it two. Darren Fletcher’s deep cross to the back post was met by the head of the former Sporting man, but Christiansen managed to claw the ball away and see his side into the break with just a one-goal deficit.

A mere ten seconds into the second period and Rooney almost broke his goalscoring drought, which goes back to the opening game of the season. The England striker chased a long ball over the Copenhagen defence but after lobbing the ball over the onrushing Christiansen, found himself beaten to the crucial dropping ball by Michael Gravgaard.

However, United were not to be denied and got a fortuitous goal from the resulting corner, whipped in by Ronaldo, when the ball hit the standing leg of Irish defender John O’Shea and flew into the net to put the home side 2-0 up.

Shortly afterwards and United had what appeared to be a strong case for a penalty waved away. A clever ball from Michael Carrick put Scholes through inside the area, only to be brought down by Christiansen. Referee Jan Wegereef waved play on, however, believing the Copenhagen goalkeeper to have got a piece of the ball.

The remainder of the game was extremely comfortable for the home side, who made several substitutions with Sunday’s match against Liverpool in mind, and Scholes, Saha and Carrick were all withdrawn.

Substitute Kieran Richardson wrapped up the win late on after a terrible mistake by the otherwise impressive Christiansen. The 21-year-old’s speculative shot from outside the box was hit straight at the Dane, who somehow allowed it to get past him and trickle over the line.

The result sees United three points clear of second place Celtic. More importantly, they now have a seven-point cushion between themselves and Benfica and Copenhagen, and a win in their next game in Denmark would see them through to the knockout phase.

Manchester United:
Van Der Sar, O’Shea, Evra, Vidic, Brown, Carrick (Solskjaer, 60), Scholes (Richardson, 76), Fletcher, Ronaldo, Rooney, Saha (Smith, 60)
Yellow Cards: Evra (51)

FC Copenhagen:
Christiansen, Jacobsen, Hangeland, Gravgaard, Wendt, Silberbauer (Bergvold, 81), Linderoth, Norregaard (Kvist, 57), Hutchison, Berglund (Pimpog, 57), Allback
Yellow Cards: None

Goals:
[1-0] Scholes, 39
[2-0] O’Shea, 46
[3-0] Richardson, 83