Somehow it felt appropriate that Ruud van Nistelrooy provided the decisive moment on a night when the majority of Manchester United’s supporters reminded Sir Alex Ferguson how much they cherished his presence.
Including qualifiers, this was the 47th Champions League goal of his career, a record that takes him above Benfica’s Eusebio to third in the list of European Cup scorers behind Real Madrid’s Alfredo di Stefano and Raul. More important, it spared Ferguson from the possibility of more discontent at the final whistle.
Instead, this was a night the manager will savour, his badly depleted team overcoming a lively, imaginative Benfica side amid some enthusiastic backing from the fans who had barracked him three days earlier. Ferguson has had a torrid time but he left to a standing ovation, with United top of Group D and no hint of the troubles that had plagued him at the weekend.
Perhaps the moral of this story is that anyone who wants to dance on Ferguson’s grave should ensure the coffin lid is firmly nailed down. Since Saturday’s acrimonious defeat to Blackburn Rovers, supporters’ groups have estimated he has only 60% of fans’ backing, so he would have been grateful for the sympathetic applause that accompanied his pre-match walk to the dugout and the raucous cheers at the end as he strode to the tunnel.
He will have been even more enamoured by the moment, after 16 minutes, when harmony was restored. ”Stand up if you love Fergie,” ordered the Stretford End, and within seconds it had snaked round the stadium. Ferguson remained impassive, but he cannot have failed to be moved by 60 000 people rising to their feet.
It was a touching gesture but Ferguson’s primary concern was the events on the field. In that respect, it would be remiss to ignore the long spells when United’s players struggled to cope with Benfica’s slick passing.
The rash of injuries that has undermined United’s season has hit their defence particularly hard and Ferguson gave a first start to the 20-year-old Phil Bardsley at right-back, with John O’Shea moving alongside Rio Ferdinand. Bardsley acquitted himself admirably, as did Kieran Richardson at left-back, but the central defensive partnership frequently looked vulnerable.
As early as the seventh minute, O’Shea allowed the ball to run under his foot, a mistake that left him indebted to Edwin van der Sar for turning aside Fabrizio Miccoli’s shot. From the resultant corner, Van der Sar made another adroit save, this time from Ricardo Rocha’s header, and the 31-time Portuguese champions had created another four presentable opportunities before Ryan Giggs opened the scoring.
Ferguson, gruff and curmudgeonly and blankly refusing to answer questions about his tactics, was being generous in the extreme when he declared his players had ”controlled the game”.
Van Nistelrooy struck the crossbar with a wonderfully struck volley but United were beginning to look a little flat and so Giggs’s goal was exquisitely timed. Ferguson’s team had not scored in the Champions League since last November and they will not mind that there was a heavy dose of good fortune attached.
Giggs did not get enough loft with his free-kick but the ball flicked off Simao Sabrosa in the defensive wall, wrong-footing the goalkeeper, Jose Filipe Moreira, and looping into the far corner. It was an inch-perfect deflection, scarcely deserved yet gratefully received none the less.
Benfica’s pace and movement in attack caused United more awkward moments after the interval and their equaliser was thoroughly merited. Van der Sar is in such good form that it takes something special to beat him and Simao provided it with a curling free-kick into the top right-hand corner of his goal. No blame could be apportioned to the Dutch goalkeeper but there was a look of guilt on Alan Smith’s face.
If the former Leeds player is to succeed as a holding midfielder, he will have to become less reckless just outside the penalty area. Smith collected a yellow card for his scything lunge at Miccoli but the penalty for United could have been far greater.
Instead, United’s fans turned up the decibel levels, as if they wanted to show Ferguson that they shared his belief in the team. Cristiano Ronaldo lashed a shot against the woodwork and, with five minutes remaining, Giggs whipped in a corner. Ferdinand flicked the ball onwards and it bounced fortuitously off Nuno Gomes for Van Nistelrooy to apply the finishing touch, a goal that will have dismayed the watching Eusebio but delighted Ferguson. — Â