Graham Taylor on Man Utd This will go down in the history books as one of Manchester United's best European performances. Nobody expected it, and I defy anyone to say that they did. It was an absolutely first-class performance with some wonderful goals.
Roma's defending wasn't the best and as the goals went in, they inevitably became more and more dispirited. But ultimately, United just ripped the Roma defence apart with their passing and it had an end product.
The first three goals, in particular, were real team efforts featuring one-touch passing before the ball ended up in the net. Then Cristiano Ronaldo made it 4-0 before half-time with a wonderful individual effort.
The movement was devastating. When the ball was on the left, Ronaldo came inside from the right wing and vice versa with Wayne Rooney coming in from the left. Ryan Giggs was magnificent in a supporting role behind Alan Smith and made some clever runs, as well as being involved in three of the goals. And Rooney proved what a team player he is by playing on the left - but still found time to come inside and get his goal.
Manchester United ratingsIt was interesting to see Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher in holding roles in the midfield and it makes me wonder if that is the way teams will play in the Premiership before long.
I think Carrick really arrived as a United player in this game and for me, he was United's best player in the first half. He played his role as a holding midfielder to perfection but he also broke forward to support the attack and his second goal was fantastic.