Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo (two) were all on target as the Reds scored four goals for the third consecutive game.
Both defences were shaky though, with Diogo Rincon and Ismael Bangoura allowed to score soft goals for the home side.
Given the abject nature of Kiev’s defending, it is hard to see anything other than a United win when the two sides meet again at Old Trafford in a fortnight, a result that would see Sir Alex Ferguson’s men book a place in the knock-out phase with two games to spare.
After losing Paul Scholes to a knee injury sustained in training and Patrice Evra to a calf strain suffered in the warm-up, the build-up was hardly smooth for the visitors.
The loss of Scholes in particular will be a concern to Ferguson.
Scan
With Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick already sidelined, the United manager will await the results of a scan Scholes will have on Wednesday with bated breath, especially as his side are due to tackle Barclays Premier League table-toppers Arsenal in the biggest game of the season so far at the Emirates Stadium on November 3.
Those worries are for another day though because here, in what are supposed to be the inhospitable climes of Eastern Europe, United were on easy street.
If Ferdinand was given too much room for his ninth-minute header, the space Rooney and Ronaldo found themselves in when they put their names on the scoresheet was laughable.
In terms of his barren career, Ferdinand is now on something of a scoring streak.
Having found the net against Aston Villa on Saturday and also for England in their win over Russia at Wembley last month, the £29.1million star’s first European goal in 42 attempts for United means his tally of three equals the best seasonal return of his career.
England team-mate Rooney is far more prolific of course and he tapped home Wes Brown’s low cross for his seventh goal in six games for club and country.
Architect
Ronaldo was the architect of that effort, breaking from inside his half. However, as the Portugal winger should have been protecting the post Rincon’s header crept into to hand Dynamo a 33rd-minute lifeline, Ronaldo was making up for his own error when he nodded home United’s third.
He could probably have controlled Ryan Giggs’ cross and rolled it in with his head such was the non-existent nature of Dynamo’s defence. Instead, he settled for a more conventional finish.
Even with two half-time changes, Dynamo were unconvincing and Anderson was agonisingly close to netting his first United goal with a shot which bounced back off a post with Olexandr Shovkovskiy beaten.
Had Dynamo been awarded what appeared a certain penalty when substitute Artem Milevskiy tumbled under Nemanja Vidic’s challenge, the hosts might have made a game of it.
Instead, Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai ruled in United’s favour - dubiously it seemed on TV replays - and then gave the Reds a spot-kick, after extensive consultation with his assistant, after Goran Gavrancic had stuck out an elbow to block Tevez’s cross.
Rooney, who failed miserably with his hat-trick attempt at Villa Park on Saturday, handed over responsibility to Ronaldo, who promptly sent Shovkovskiy the wrong way.
Bangoura wrapped up the scoring 10 minutes from time and while the departure of a seemingly uninjured Edwin van der Sar raised eyebrows not long afterwards, United coasted home.
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Watch Anderson.Best player on the planet in 3 years time!
Hey BobbyD, now thats what we've wanted ?! Go out, attack from the first minute, take the game to them. How they scored from the corner shows why we have to play this way. We have to play to score !! Anderson class & had to play on his own. Those who defend Jos & Fletch should watch a game like this & maybe they'll realise why we moan!
injuries apart tho', it's happy Days !!
The Plus Points:
3 Points and one foot in the knockout stages.
Anderson was again outstanding and dominant in the midfield. Best player on the pitch by far.
The Negative Points:
Our defending was very poor. To concede 2 goals to a poor side like that was embarrassing. The injury to Evra was a big blow, as John O'Shea made what is seen as a good defence, quite poor. He was awful. He was partially to blame for the first goal Kiev scored, along with Ronaldo who should have been on the post, and I can't understand for the life of me Ronaldo's positioning there. Vidic didn't have his best game either. He looked a bit nervous after his injury, he should have been sent off for what was a penalty, and he was to blame for Kievs second goal because he turned his back to the shot instead of closing it down. That's the second time he has done that now that has cost us a goal, as he did the same at City. Lets hope his recent injury doesn't take any of his usual commitment away from his game.
Ronaldo's play in general was very poor. OK, he scored 2 goals, but a lamp post would have scored the first due to the quality of the cross, and the second was a penalty. He gave the ball away far too often, and I'm going to put it down to tiredness due to the recent qualifying games.
We wasted too many chances. I'm actually disappointed with 4 goals, because we should have had atleast 7. Maybe the fact that we were so much in control that we lost that bit of concentration, but we'll need to be sharper against better sides.
All in all, it's 3 points, but I wouldn't get carried away because the side we played were extremely poor, and there are alot of negatives to take from the game. We won't know how good this current Man Utd squad is until we play a proper side, because lets face it, Wigan, Villa and Kiev weren't.
great win,good composure.this team is playing by far better, than the start of the season.a great improvement for all the players involved,keep it up lads you did us proud.lets hear the bitterness from the muppets,bring it on fools.
well done Anderson. if i say that we did not miss Scholes today would be the best compliment i can give him. boy i need to buy his shirt. just one thing. i would like him to take a shot or two on goal. but great performance overall.
Superb display by Anderson man of the match for me. Wanted the ball and was calm and composed when he got it. Fletcher looked very rusty but that is to be expected. They should have scored a lot more goals than they did O'Shea missed a sitter. But back to Anderson to all of those who thought he was a dud, the Villa game and tonight show he is anything but.
Anderson had another great game tonight ,Just shows he needs the games,and will be a brilliant signing.As another lesser local club says , Its just like watching brasil!
As much as it pains me to say it I thought Elano was good ,but Anderson is much better ,and what is more he is younger,and again with a better club .No one can call me bitter even if I am a Blueman!
Thoroughly entertaining game and I'm delighted with the way the boys performed. I wouldn't worry about the goals conceded too much (considering JOS was standing-in for Evra) but we need to tighten up again. We are depleted in midfield without Scholes, Carrick and Hargreaves but Anderson is turning into a revelation. Giggs was absolutely outstanding. I had my doubts about Anderson but this guy could well turn out to be a class act.
I hope we can get players back for the Arsenal game because that is going to be a humdinger of a game.
Four goals away from home in Europe in a fabulous game where we could have had double that and we've got someone like Red Dawn listing a whole series of negatives! I despair, I really do!
Balders, not sure we're you're coming from with your JOS/DF comments. JOS played in the position (full back) we keep being told is his best and I thought young Darren had a very competent game in midfield. Outshone by Mr Anderson, no question, but still a good performance.
Positives: an aggressive attacking performance; four goals away from home; three points away from home; we're virtually in the next round; very good individual performances from Rooney; Tevez, Anderson, Giggs, Rio & Brown; we didn't miss Scholes, Carrick or Hargreaves; twelve goals in three games; NINE wins on the trot; we go top on Saturday if we beat Boro at home
ANDERSON WAS SIMPLY AWESOME. I SAID HE WILL BE BETTER THAN FABREGAS. I HOPE TO BE PROVED RIGHT WHEN WE MEET ASS-NAL. HE'S VERY INTELLIGENT AND TOO CONFIDENT WITH THE BALL. HE GOT TIRED TOWARDS THE END. I GUESS HE NEED MORE CHALLENGING GAMESS.
Blimey I thought I was a miserable git til I read Red Dawn. Ronaldo was typically superb & let's not stop praising him as we can spend too much time justifying the clearly average like JOS & DF. Anderson is looking potentially superb & it's refreshing to see a CM always seeking to play forward not like the Crab Carrick. Maybe Evra's injury did us a favour on the night & avoided JOS starting in CM.
Pleases me to see a Man city fan talking some sense at last on the United site.I will see if bitter Ted Knott follows suit ,but I wont hold my breath.
Hi All,
Been away awhile, and keeping quiet.
Have to say to all the SAF detractors out there, I had my doubts, we've spent a lot of hard cash and have a very young team to show for it. However, Roon & Tevvie are looking very very promising, Anderson is looking like he really can lace Schole's boots and if Nani can step up to the plate, and I'm beginning to think he can, we've rejuvenated all our team except our right-back! Micah anybody?
Do I remember somebody once saying, "You can't win anything with kids??"
In fairness though, I think things are looking rosy for the future, but lets give the gaffer a break, we've got a lot of new talent who need to integrate, let's not forget Pique and Foster are in the mix too, when you've got so many new/young players, it takes time to gel and if the guys don't hit full throttle this season, next season watch out everyone!!!!!!!!
Can't wait for United Vs Arsenal! :D Two great teams with great flair and seem to be playing the closest thing to fast, free- flowing football this season. With our upper hand in attack, I can see us winning. (not to be biased or anything :P)
Red dawn, well said but that's unfair to Vida! just rejoice & look to the next match.
Hey Balders, after having a good, undisturbed sleep with the after-thought of the match still think JOS & Fletch are poor? I'm not Fletch-JoS backer but the former deserves a better comment from you.
Bloody Hell Red Dawn! You aren't very easy to please are you?!!
Another gung-ho display - great to watch, but you always felt there would be lots of goals because of some dodgy defending by both teams. It's a good job that Rio (MotM for me) was on top form because Vidic looked rusty and O'Shea was awful at left back - kept getting drawn into the middle and leaving loads of space for their right-back to get forward. Anderson had another very promising game and the Rooney/Tevez combination continues to prosper. Final score could/should have been about 12-4, but another 4 goals will boost confidence for tougher tasks that lie ahead.
Hahahahha! I must admit I now feel a bit of an eejit for doing that whole "history of Dynamo Kijev" build-up thing yesterday.
It didn't all go our own way though as we did concede two goals but attacking fuzball, three points and let's get back to home shores.
Balders, on the "Van der Sar up for European trip" article you said that I don't get to many games, which is true because I'll tell you that I'm 18 years old, in Australia [hence the weird times of all my posts, no, I'm not getting up at 5 in the morning every day] and I watch every United match on the internet, so you've made a fair point there. (I've been to 20 United games as we holiday to England often).
So, I hope you'll excuse me for not being one of the Old Trafford regulars but re: VDS - Yes, he's made quite a few brilliant saves and is often a controlling influence in the penalty area (the title-clinching, CiThai one last season WAS lucky, and he DID almost cost us the title against Portsmouth) and I know that he's seen as our definite No.1 keeper and something of a United legend by some, but he's very old, has let in many soft goals and sooner or later we're gonna have to faze him out and Fozzie and TK in.
TK did nothing at all wrong in his time between the posts and he should still be there in my view.
Also, I know Fletcher and O'Shea aren't Messi but they're excellent squad players, can you, Bobbydazzler and others please stop bagging them so relentlessly.
Red Dawn is very right, there is a fair bit to be negative about, the constant injuries, and Vidic's habit of turning his back on shots.
I think you should identify all the teams problems and that cheering and pretending everything's going well all the time doesn't do much good.
I just think that some of the fans here were so desperate for goals and good performances after the opening to the season that some have now gone gaga over wins against Villa, Wigan and Dynamo, the defending from all three of those teams has been poor and quite frankly faced with that we'd expect to be scoring three or four goals.
The great positive to all of this of course is that we have all of these players to come back (ie: Nev, Carro, Hargraves, Park, [I probably shouldn't put Saha in that list]).
Anyone like me already knew Anderson was a star-in-the-making before he came here, or at least anyone who followed Anderson's progress at Porto and saw him at the 2005 U-17 World Cup in Peru (the first fuzball tournament to use micro-chips in the balls) where he led his Brazilian team to the final where they were only beaten by the Giovanni dos Santos-led Mexico. He still won the Golden Ball award for BEST PLAYER AT THE TOURNAMENT, beating Barcelona and Mexico's dos Santos so has been the BEST U-17 PLAYER IN THE WORLD and was already ranked as one of the best young players in the world whilst at Porto (along with Messi, Gio,etc) and along with Portuguese prodigy Ricardo Quaresma, helped lead them cruise to the Portuguese league title.
I say all of this because although I love all my fellow United fans, I get the sense that a fair few of them wouldn't have a clue about foreign fuzball and/or youth tournaments.
How he has fitted in to the United team sooooo quickly and already been our best player in the last couple of matches at age 19 is friggin' awesome he's been upstaging a lot of other players.
I agree that DF and JOS were both poor in this match (O'Shea squandered a fabulous chance) and as a team we probably got a bit arrogant at times, (ie: no-one on the post for their set-piece that Rincon converted).
So, IMO we shouldn't be jumping for joy at these last 3 games and we're going to need to buy at least 1 or 2 new strikers (possibly more the way these injuries are going) in Jan.
But we should be jumping for joy over Anderson's form and and looking forward to an whole host of players coming back.
Also, I want to ask this of Balders, Birdy and Bobbydazzler, do you guys think that playing 4-4-2 and the frenetically-paced, almost one-touch attacking game would be the right approach to take against a full-strength AC Milan or Barcelona?
I remember when we played a very similar AC Milan (their team hasn't changed much over the last few seasons) back in season 2004-05 at O.T.
This was in that period when the team was more based around the pace of Rooney and Ronaldo and played pretty much every game in that frenetic, almost one-touch, physical, super-fast-paced way.
We played exactly that way against Milan in that game and struggled to create that many clear-cut chances but we did create a few (Quinton Fortune had the best of them when he was clean-through, one-on-one with Dida, who went at his feet, the ball bobbled clear and bounced juuuust past Dida's left-hand post, I still vividly remember the look of absolute agony on an OT ball-boys face) but they ended up creating more chances than us and easily could've gotten more than the one goal they ended up with (thank you Roy Carroll) because they hit us on the counter-attack (like we often do to teams now) and in the following game at the Giuseppe Meazza we played the same, high-tempo attacking game, Giggs had a fantastic chance that he couldn't have hit any better and it re-bounded off the inside of the post and this time a Howard error gave them a goal.
I read Giggs's auto-biography at the end of that season and in it he said that United need to play a slower-paced, more continental/South American game from then on.
Last season against them we were under the cosh for a fair bit of the 1st half at OT, with bad defending by Evra resulting in one of Kaka's first half goals, but when Gattuso went off we,and in particular FLETCHER killed them in the second half. We all know what happened next as we played defensive fuzball in Milano and conceded early, from then on we played a slower-paced game that was probably never going to do much good against Milan and ended up losing 3-0 and creating barely anything.
Liverpool attacked and hassled Barcelona last season and got past them and really should have scored a few times against Milan in that final in the first half before being hit on the counter-attack and had their tiredness exploited because they'd spent so much of the 1st half attacking and hassling Milan's defenders.
What do you guys think?
Contrary to popular belief, even if we beat Kiev at home we will not be guaranteed a quarter-final place. If Sporting beat Roma both teams will have 6 points. If they both then proceed to win their last 2 matches they will catch up with us on 12 points. Then goal difference and head-2-head scores come into it. The 10-point mark is generally thought to be enough, but in actuality you need 13 points to mathematically make sure.
balders this was a proper united performance and a joy to watch, thought we SHOULD have easily had another 4/5 goals but lets not be greedy. has saf finally twigged that attack is the best form of defence?????