Bloodied Manchester United prevail in assault on history
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David Beckham had an immediate impact at San Siro when Ronaldino scored following the English midfielder's free-kick, but he was substituted after 72 minutes against his former team-mates. Photograph: Stringer/Italy/Reuters
Two members of Manchester United's 1992 FA Youth Cup-winning side were on show at San Siro last night but it was the unexpected one who made the most extraordinary contribution to the evening's seemingly endless parade of entertainment. In terms of execution the goal with which Paul Scholes ended United's 52-year wait to score against Milan on their home ground could hardly have been less in keeping with the occasion.
As Scholes aimed to meet Darren Fletcher's cross on the volley, the ball completely missed his swinging right boot and cannoned off his standing leg, trickling into the net off the far post. Milan's defenders stood and stared in horror. At half-time the home supporters jeered the replays on the big screen. And as if to italicise the disdain, in the final minutes of the match Clarence Seedorf studiously applied a backheel to Ronaldinho's cutback to register exactly the sort of deft, technically immaculate goal you would once have expected from Scholes.
It was Scholes, however, who had put United on the path to one of their more famous victories. Unorthodox the goal may have been but it was the reward for a period of brave and sustained, if somewhat haphazard, attacking and opened the way for Wayne Rooney to silence the Milan fans with a couple of bulldozing headers.
Still, this was a gala night in one of football's great theatres and just you try keeping David Beckham out of it, particularly with his England manager in the dress circle. In the third minute, before the stadium had time to draw breath, Patrice Evra fouled Alexandre Pato and up stepped the man of the hour. A long free‑kick from the right, an overhead clearance from Evra, an instant volley from Ronaldinho, lurking unattended on the edge of the area, and a deflection off Michael Carrick past the wrong-footed Edwin van der Sar. There, Fabio Capello. Your trip was not wasted.
It was a scruffy goal, by Milan's suave standards, but it seemed to justify Leonardo's decision to restore Beckham to the starting line-up in place of Gennaro Gattuso. Not that the coach would have dreamed of leaving him out on such an occasion. La Scala needs its stars and so does San Siro. It was not looking so clever 70 minutes later, when Beckham gave way to Seedorf after achieving little else.
In purely footballing terms, of course, Milan have a bigger star than Beckham, and Ronaldinho's presence constantly illuminated the match as he tormented Rafael, his young compatriot, with flicks and darts, all of which had the crowd sighing with delight. Milan could have been three up by the time Scholes produced his comic-opera goal – which came, it should be noted, at the end of the best piece of collective interplay of the night, a move of at least 10 passes involving half a dozen players. Had the attempted volley made a proper connection, it might have been acclaimed as one of United's best goals in Europe.
Gattuso's absence had certainly helped Scholes to enjoy his evening. Lying deep, he was able to take his time on the ball before distributing it with generally unerring precision as United strained to cancel out their earlier misfortune. Nowadays he does not often enjoy such freedom in domestic fixtures.
It was strange, too, that with such an unsightly piece of work he should become the United player to achieve what none of his predecessors had managed in the four European Cup away legs against Milan stretching back to 1958. Among those unable to make their mark at San Siro were such prolific strikers as George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, Dennis Viollet, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs. Not one of them had been able to find a way past defenders bearing the names Schnellinger, Nesta and Maldini, and such goalkeepers as Lorenzo Buffon, Fabio Cudicini and – until last night – Nelson Dida.
For all Milan's late surge and Seedorf's marvellous goal, United's chance of sealing this tie must surely be strengthened by the inexperience of Leonardo, who took charge last summer. This is the 40-year-old World Cup winner's first coaching job. It is quite a place to start, you might think, quite a gamble on Silvio Berlusconi's part and quite a dramatic contrast with the other coaches the English club encountered in their earlier meetings with Milan, all of which ended in defeat: Giuseppe "Gipo" Viani in 1958, the great Nereo Rocco in 1969 and Carlo Ancelotti in 2005 and 2007, none of them allowing the teams of Jimmy Murphy, Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson to score in the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
And when United finally achieved that objective last night, there could be only amazement that a match full of such open, entertaining, skilful, imaginative football should turn first, and then turn again, on a couple of acts that were undoubtedly part of the action but were in a sense completely divorced from it. Eventually, thanks to Rooney, a degree of normality prevailed as United so thunderously completed the first part of their assault on history.