OPEN AFFAIR

United dominated much of the match at Old Trafford but were never going to repeat their 7-1 home win over Roma at the same stage of the competition exactly a year ago this week.

It was a surprisingly open affair though and Roma, even without injured striker Francesco Totti, posed far more of a threat than the home side would have liked.

United were delighted to welcome back club captain Gary Neville, who came on for the last nine minutes for his first appearance after an injury-hit 13 months.

Defender Mikael Silvestre returned to the starting lineup after being sidelined since last September.

Ferguson had one eye on Sunday's Premier League clash with Arsenal and made five changes from the team that won in Rome, resting scorers Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney among others.

GETTING FORWARD

United wasted no time getting forward to try and kill off Roma and Park Ji-sung had their first effort after six minutes when his angled shot went wide after a pass from Ryan Giggs.

Four minutes later Giggs found Wes Brown from a corner but the defender's powerful header went over the bar.

Less than a minute after that United should have taken the lead when Tevez found Hargreaves, but the midfielder delayed his effort just too long and shot against goalkeeper Doni's legs.

Roma's Daniele De Rossi, left, blasts a penalty over the bar during the Champions League, quarterfinal, second leg match against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Manchester England yesterday.

United almost paid for their profligacy on the half-hour.

Although Roma's attacks were only sporadic, they looked more than capable of testing a United defence that seemed vulnerable without the injured Nemanja Vidic even though Rio Ferdinand had recovered sufficiently from a foot injury to play.

Mirko Vucinic twice forced Edwin van der Sar to make important saves while the raiding Mancini and Marco Cassetti also caused problems on the flanks and it was a tackle on Mancini that gave Roma their penalty.

Brown appeared to get to the ball first but Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo awarded Roma a penalty instead. De Rossi blasted over and hid his head in his shirt in shame.

United weathered that storm and although they largely controlled the rest of the match they did not finally seal the tie until Tevez's diving header broke the deadlock.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily April 10, 2008)