United on song

Ronaldo got his seventh goal of this campaign, in which he has become the tournamentï¿½s highest-scorer,but it is significant that United concede so few on all fronts, writes Kevin McCarra.

Utter domination can be a humdrum affair in football. Manchester United were spectacular intermittently and had to scuffle on occasion, yet they still brought down the curtain on this quarterfinal in the first leg. Minds can already turn to the meeting in the last four with, most likely, Barcelona, who beat Schalke 1-0 in Gelsenkirchen.

United could have added more goals from the men who had already struck, with Cristiano Ronaldo hitting a post and Wayne Rooney missing a simple chance. By then, interest was flagging. Although Roma can claim that they were a genuine force, the Premier League club had given their riposte to Luciano Spalletti's criticism of them.

Roma's coach had pointed out beforehand that United's away record in the Champions League is moderate. Although facts bear him out, this is a developing team that can break loose from previous limitations. The victors will be satisfied that there was only one notable save from Edwin van der Sar, who parried a Mirko Vucinic header after an hour.

Roma, it is true, did fashion openings, but United were sound enough considering that one of their key presences, the centre-back Nemanja Vidic, had to go off with a knee injury in the 34th minute after landing awkwardly. It will take more than that to fill the club with foreboding.

Ronaldo got his seventh goal of this campaign, in which he has become the tournament's highest-scorer, but it is significant that United concede so few on all fronts. Sloppiness from Roma was of help, but such easy progress should blind no one to the truth that the best sides from across a continent are sent out to test one another in this competition.

Roma were determined to be enterprising and that looked ominous for United, but Ronaldo took no notice. It would appear that foreboding is a state of mind with which he is yet to be acquainted. The Portuguese just keeps on scoring.

Sir Alex Ferguson might have attempted to claim a strategic masterstroke in his deployment of Ronaldo at centre-forward, if there had not been 35 prior goals from the Portuguese this season when he has nominally occupied different posts. Ronaldo climbed impressively above the full-back Marco Cassetti to convert Paul Scholes' clipped cross from the right with a downward header before half-time.

Until then Roma could have been quite pleased with themselves. They took an interest in working moves through the inside-left channel and it did look as if that could be a profitable avenue. Vucinic was also using muscle and initiative as a lone attacker, wheeling away from Rio Ferdinand to put a shot a shade high when the game was goalless.

The air of tension then ought not to have seemed peculiar. That 7-1 drubbing at Old Trafford in last season's quarterfinal was unforgettable, but there ought also to be a sliver of space in the memory banks for the other meetings between the clubs. This was the fifth in 12 months and that rout was an anomaly in a sequence of otherwise close contests. United had even lost one of them on this ground.

Italian football is suffering an identity crisis, disturbed that it is being stripped of a status that once looked permanent. The holders, Milan, went out meekly to Arsenal and Internazionale could not make any impression on battle-hardened Liverpool. Roma, however, have been dynamic in the attempt to prove themselves the exception. Their hopes of wresting the Serie A title from Inter are not over yet and, in the Champions League, they pulled off a triumph by eliminating Real Madrid, with Vucinic a thrilling and devastating substitute at the Bernabeu. The Montenegrin constituted significant compensation here for a line-up bereft of the injured Francesco Totti.

Ferguson anticipated hard labour, judging by his decision to pick the workmanlike Park Ji-sung in preference to the veteran Ryan Giggs, who nursed his hamstring niggle on the bench. It was, initially, a grind for United and that opener from Ronaldo was soothing as much as satisfying, taking their mind off the fact that John O'Shea would need to strive for the standards of reliability set by Vidic.

United were not always steadfast, particularly as Roma strove to raise the tempo at the outset of the second-half. The hosts had an edge then and Christian Panucci ought to have equalised instead of hacking the ball over after a long throw-in dropped to him. There was, fleetingly, more excitement and danger.

United were to apply a tranquilliser. Wes Brown crossed deep after 66 minutes and, when Park headed back into the middle, Doni fumbled the ball and Rooney was able to bundle it into the net and put the tie far beyond Roma's reach.