Manchester: Goals from Antonio Valencia and a deflected Wayne Rooney effort gave Manchester United a hard earned victory over Romanian side Otelul Galati and leaves Sir Alex Ferguson's side second in Group C as Dorinel Munteanu's side tested the Premier League champions at Old Trafford.
This was the first game at Old Trafford since the 6-1 defeat to Manchester City and the need to erase the memory of the derby day defeat was high on the priority list for Manchester United and they wasted little time in scoring the opening goal.
Ferguson's side came out firing and the visitors stood off Dimitar Berbatov which allowed him to trot forward and pass to the overlapping Phil Jones who continued the move and crossed for Valencia to tap home from close range at the far post. It couldn’t have been much easier for the former Wigan man.
The rare start for Michael Owen was abruptly curtailed when he came off after only 10 minutes to be replaced by Javier Hernandez, the reason for the replacement was unclear with precaution being the most likely reason.
With the Romanian outfit offering very little as an attacking force, Ferguson’s side didn’t need to up the tempo and intent. They spent long spells holding onto the ball with no real need to fully demonstrate their superiority.
Hernandez had a couple of chances but his only real attempt ended up well wide of Branko Grahovac’s net after half an hour. Grahovac had to be alert shortly after when a marauding run, which begun in the United half, from Fabio left the Otelul defence watching and only an excellent sliding challenge from Cristian Sarghi prevented more danger.
This was the best stanza for the hosts and more good work from Jones could have brought the second goal. The former Blackburn man played a swift one two with Berbatov and continued his run into the box his rasping drive was heading goalward until Sarghi’s header deflected the ball clear.
The visitors took hope from the defensive efforts and when a casually lax pass from Valencia allowed Ionut Neagu to bare down on goal, only a hint of a deflection from Rio Ferdinand and a good save from David De Gea kept the hosts in the lead.
After the break and it was more of the same from Phil Jones. A speedy sprint from the full back caused problems when he linked with Hernandez on the edge of the box to free Berbatov into the area but the Bulgarian’s run took the ball wide and closed any possible angle for a shot.
The threat from Jones didn’t diminish and a bounding run down the right flank shortly after resulted in a cross which was a little too high for the diminutive Mexican who struggled to elevate himself to the hanging ball.
The theme of the evening continued for much of the second half with the hosts never really slipping up the gears.
The one goal seemed likely to be the margin until late in the game saw a long range effort from Rooney deflected of Sarghi and left Grahovac with no chance of saving the shot. The scoreline was harsh on the visitors but it was clear that Manchester United did enough to win the contest.
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