The Hindu : Sport / Football : Man U, Barcelona score away wins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Football

Man U, Barcelona score away wins

Bojan Krkic stars for the Spanish giant

LONDON: Manchester United and FC Barcelona won away from home on Tuesday, and both will be heavy favourites to advance to the Champions League semifinals next week. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney scored a goal each to give United a 2-0 win over AS Roma in the first leg of the quarterfinals, and teenage striker Bojan Krkic scored for Barcelona in its 1-0 win over Schalke.

The second legs are scheduled for next Wednesday.

Ronaldo scored his seventh goal in eight Champions League matches in the 39th minute, jumping over Marco Cassetti and heading in a cross from Paul Scholes.

The goal was Ronaldo’s 36th in all competitions this season.

Roma had several chances to equalise early in the second half at the Stadio Olimpico but couldn’t put its shots on target.

Instead, Rooney doubled the advantage, knocking in a loose ball after Park Ji-sung headed a long cross from Wes Brown into the box in the 66th. Roma goalkeeper Alexander Doni got his hands on the ball, but couldn’t control it.

Huge advantage

“We didn’t lose a goal, which is really vital,” United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said. “Fantastic scoreline for us.”

Roma played without injured captain Francesco Totti, who was replaced by Mirko Vucinic. Park was playing in place of United midfielder Ryan Giggs.

United defender Nemanja Vidic left the game after being injured while attempting a header over Vucinic. He was replaced by John O’Shea.

There were worries over potential fan violence after incidents during United’s previous two visits to Rome, but no serious disturbances were reported on Tuesday.

United will host Roma in the second leg at Old Trafford, where the English champion humiliated the Italians 7-1 a year ago.

Clean slate

Two-time champion Barcelona remained unbeaten in the Champions League this season.

The 17-year-old Krkic put Barcelona ahead in the 12th minute in a closed AufSchalke Arena. Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer saved a shot from Thierry Henry but the Frenchman got the ball back and rolled it across the goal to Krkic, who scored from close range.

Schalke was playing in the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time, and looked overmatched at times, even though Barcelona was playing without Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Deco.

“We had too much respect for them,” Schalke midfielder Gerald Asamoah said.

“The coach told us at halftime to put them under more pressure and we tried to do that. We played better but we could not score.”

The results: AS Roma 0 lost to Manchester United 2 (Cristiano Ronaldo 39, Wayne Rooney 66); Schalke 04 0 lost to FC Barcelona 1 (Bojan Krkic 12). — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport