Carrick 11,
Smith 17, Rooney 19, Ronaldo 44, Ronaldo 49,
Carrick 60, Evra 81
De Rossi 69
"Rampant Reds in seventh heaven after Roma rout"
Manchester United obliterated Roma and all but erased the reputation of Serie A in a night to remember at Old Trafford. No one believed it possible to treat a top Italian club quite like this.
Especially as Roma had won 2-0 in France to eliminate much faniced Lyon in the previous round and in the first leg had already beaten United 2-1 in the Olympic stadium in Rome.
The Reds had been formidable at Old Trafford in their Champions League matches however an edgy performance at home to Lille in the last round gave United fans a cause for concern that this could be yet another painful European elimination on home soil. The panache displayed on this night was all the more uncanny considering that United had seemed so careworn while losing the first leg and being beaten by 2-1 Portsmouth the previous weekend.
However this was to be the night that United really clicked into European top gear and finally displayed the form they had been demonstrating in the Premiership all season. This blistering display ranks with any in United's romantic history and the freedom of attacking play smacked of an innocent golden age for European football in the 1960s.
The manager had perpetrated an extravagant understatement while getting a prediction right in his programme notes. "If we score tonight and I think we will," Sir Alex Ferguson had written, "we will pull this one off." Maybe he was only being coy about a premonition of what was to come.
While the gusto was irresistible, the side was set up perfectly as well. Ferguson, unexpectedly, had adopted the same 4-2-3-1 formation as Roma but there was no problem telling them apart when the Premiership team had all the width, pace and penetration.
There was certainly foresight in the planning. Wayne Rooney was nominally stationed on the left, a piece of positioning that customarily has the crowd cursing the name of Ferguson's assistant Carlos Queiroz. Like most other things that United attempted, the ploy was inspired. The logic of the battle plan also called for an unexpected selection.
Of the men available Alan Smith was the appropriate choice for the role of lone striker, even though he had not started a Premiership fixture in the current campaign. Fully recovered from the broken leg he suffered at Anfield last season, he was the ideal foil for all the players darting and spinning around him.
From the start Roma had a sickly pallor and not only because Rodrigo Taddei took ill so close to kick-off that the team sheet had to be redrafted. His place went to Mirko Vucinic, who had delivered the winner in the Serie A club's 2-1 success last week. Personnel turned into an irrelevance as Cristiano Ronaldo and the others swerved round all obstacles.
With 12 minutes gone the Portugal winger jinked inside and sent play to Michael Carrick, whose bending finish from outside the area confused static goalkeeper Doni, beating him at his near post. Five minutes later Gabriel Heinze advanced on the left and picked out Ryan Giggs in the middle during an ebullient attack of one-touch passing. Cristian Chivu failed to cut out the Welshman's through-ball and Smith was clear to take the chance with aplomb - his first goal since November 19 2005.
In the 19th minute a mesmeric cameo by Ronaldo was followed by Smith's ball to Giggs. The veteran centred and Rooney knocked in the third off the post to finish another magnificent sweeping move. It was Ronaldo above all who made Roma drown in their own helplessness. The visitors deferred to him on 44 minutes as he cut inside from the right and beat Doni with a near post strike from the edge of the area to make an unbelievable scoreline of 4-0 before the interval.
More was to follow from the scorer of that goal. Four minutes of the second half had gone when Roma lost the ball in defence, play was fired instantly to Giggs on the left and while Smith could not quite connect with a low delivery, Ronaldo was at the far post to force it home.
Roma may have eliminated Lyon in France but this was a team in torment. "Are you City in disguise?" bayed the crowd. With an hour gone, United switched a move sharply to the left, Heinze laid the ball back and Carrick placed it high past Doni from 20 yards for his second goal - a shot which was even better than his first effort.
Roma grabbed scant consolation in the 69th minute when Daniel de Rossi rifled in a volley from a Francesco Totti cross. Had Roma not been 6-0 down the goal would have stood out as one of the best of the season but surrounded by United's collection of classics it seemed merely an afterthought.
It was exhibition stuff for Ferguson's side by the end and they got the final word they richly deserved when Evra's low shot from outside the box crept past Doni. By the close United, with their substitutions made, were voluntarily reduced to 10 men when Rio Ferdinand was allowed to go off with a knock. On this showing the visitors would have suffered even if Ferguson's line-up had been in single figures from the kick-off.
Sir Alex Ferguson hailed the 7-1 victory as the club's greatest European evening at Old Trafford. Ferguson said: "It was a fantastic performance by every one of our players. The speed of our play and our penetration was absolutely superb. "That's absolutely the best night of European football we've had here. We never expected to win 7-1 but the quality of our game was so high. Six or seven years ago Spanish football was the best. But on the evidence of this season Barcelona and Real Madrid are not as near to where they were in previous years, while the competitive nature and the quality of the English game has improved over the seasons."
United had contributed to another legendary night of European football. The burden was a widespread expectation that they would beat AC Milan in the last four and go on to the Champions League final in Athens. Sadly it didn't work out that way but this match will always be remembered for a long time to come.
MANCHESTER
UNITED:
Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Heinze, O'Shea (Evra 52), Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick (Richardson 73), Giggs (Solskjaer 61), Rooney, Smith
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Dong, Cathcart, Eagles
Booked: Smith, Ferdinand
