> ManU 1-0 Roma

MANCHESTER, England (AFP)
Wayne Rooney's first goal of the season was enough to give Manchester United a 1-0 Champions League win over Roma on Tuesday.
After last month's victory by the same scoreline at Sporting Lisbon, the England forward's 70th-minute strike leaves the Premier League champions firmly on track to progress from group F, but it was a far from convincing display from Sir Alex Ferguson's men.
The United boss acknowledged that Roma might have taken something from the match if they had been able to make more of the numerous chances they enjoyed, but paid tribute to the way Rooney latched on to a pass from Nani to secure the victory.
"It was marvellous," Ferguson purred. "It was a similar goal to the one he scored at AC Milan (last season) - a diagonal run across the defenders, a great pass in and a great finish."
Ferguson also had praise for goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak's contribution to the victory on his Champions League debut.
"He was excellent. He made some good saves, a couple of good blocks. And they missed a couple of chances, good chances actually, and maybe we carried a little bit of luck at those moments," the United boss acknowledged.
Six of United's seven wins this season have now come by a 1-0 margin but Ferguson is confident the current goal shortage would soon come to an end.
"Sometimes you go through these spells. But it won't last forever. Some day we're going to hit a few goals and hopefully it will start soon."
Roma's last visit to Old Trafford, in April, had ended in a 7-1 defeat. But a team featuring only five survivors from that night appeared unscarred by the memory as they made much the brighter start to the match.
Predictably, their talismanic captain, Francesco Totti was at the centre of things, testing Kuszczak with an early low drive before sending his team-mate Mancini in on goal with a delightful angled pass inside John O'Shea.
An unwarranted offside flag came to United's rescue on that occasion and they had another let-off when Simone Perrotta failed to hit the target from eight yards after Mancini had cut back Cicinho's deep cross invitingly into his path.
Twenty minutes had elapsed before United generated their first sight of goal, Nani being brought down by Perrotta to win an edge-of-the-area freekick that Cristiano Ronaldo thumped into the wall.
The quality of Nani's crossing soon began to look like United's best chance of a breakthrough. After one dipping delivery from the right was headed over by Ronaldo another from the opposite flank forced Gianluca Curci into a spot of desperate back-pedalling and a one-handed save.
At the other end, a typically clumsy Paul Scholes challenge gave Totti the chance to test Kuszczak once more and the Polish goalkeeper - standing in for the injured Edwin van der Sar - needed two attempts to gather a low drive that pierced the wall.
The best chance of the opening period fell to United however, ten minutes before the break.
Nani's trickery got him round the back of the visitors back four on the left and his chip to the back post was perfectly weighted for an unmarked Rooney.
From eight yards out, the England forward struck his volley cleanly but too high for the venom in the strike to trouble Curci.
United enjoyed an even greater let-off in the opening minutes of the second half, when a deflected shot from Alberto Aqilani offered Ludovic Giuly the chance to find Totti on the edge of the six-yard box with only Kuszczak to beat.
The number ten opted to attempt a chipped finish, clearing both the sprawling goalkeeper and the bar in the process.
Aqilani then went close himself with a 25-yard effort and with Roma continuing to keep their hosts pinned back deep in their own territory, Ferguson had little option but to change things around.
After 66 virtually anonymous minutes, Louis Saha was replaced with Carlos Tevez, a switch that meant Rooney pushing forward to play on the shoulder of the last defender.
It paid off almost immediately. After gathering Michael Carrick's pass 35 yards out, Nani capped a fine performance with a lovely outside-of-the-boot clip through the inside right channel.
Rooney was on to it faster than either of the Roma centrebacks and his shot on the turn found the net via the inside of Curci's right-hand post.
United continued to live dangerously in the closing stages and it took a combination of some superb blocks from Nemanja Vidic and a couple of shocking misses from Perrotta and substitute Mauro Esposito to secure the three points