MANCHESTER United maintained their 100 per cent Champions League record thanks to a late goal from Antonio Valencia against CSKA Moscow.

Valencia had fired a second-half warning shot when he rocketed a volley against the bar from outside the box, and he eventually beat Igor Akinfeev with an angled shot with just four minutes left. It was Valencia's second goal in two games following his strike against Bolton at the weekend.

United now have nine points from three games at the top of Group B.

There was no big silver prize to be packed away in United’s excess baggage on this flight home from Moscow - instead a comfortable win and a major step nearer to another knockout phase in the Champions League.

And, ahead of Sunday’s Premier League match with Liverpool it was a deserved reward, if not as grand on this occasion.

There could not have been a greater contrast to United’s last visit to the Luzhniki Stadium.

Back in May 2008, this big Russian bowl in Moscow was crammed with over 50,000 visitors from England in the 80,000-plus capacity ground.

United’s travelling support of over 25,000, added to Chelsea’s fans, made the Champions League final an unforgettable experience. But, not surprisingly given the expense, the journey and the low-key nature of this match, only around 500 die-hard Reds had flown in from Manchester.
 
The tiny pocket of hardy souls were housed in the same end where Edwin Van der Sar saved that famous trophy-winning penalty from Nicolas Anelka.

CSKA Moscow moved the tie from their own ground to the national stadium to accommodate a bigger audience, but the stadium was only half-full and obviously lacked the tense atmosphere of when the big silver cup was up for grabs here. 

In a bid to get some confidence back into a recently uncharacteristically wobbly defence, Fergie brought together his first-choice 'triangle' of Edwin Van Der Sar, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.

United defensive selection

The threesome hadn’t played together since Rome last May. They, and Paul Scholes, were the only players starting who also were in the XI here in May 2008 for the triumphant final.

The reforming of the rearguard axis didn’t look too sound initially. Birthday boy Vidic seemed to forget he was supposed to receive the presents and not give them and he gifted CSKA an early chance with a bad pass. Danger man Krasic let his fellow Serb off the hook by crashing his shot wide.

United keeper coach Eric Steele might have been hoping to have a first-hand update on Russian number one Igor Akinfeev, but the Reds barely gave him a chance to impress his possible future employers and change Fergie’s mind over whether Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak are Van der Sar’s heirs.

Only a bouncing Scholes effort tested him in the first half.

Fortunately Van der Sar was equally redundant until another Vidic error needed some swift attention from the Dutchman’s right boot.

With both sides seemingly happy to play keep-ball on the artificial surface, this game was almost as lifeless as Lenin’s body in the Kremlin mausoleum.

Dimitar Berbatov was getting so frustrated by his lack of service and chances that he took matters into his own hands and attempted to win a penalty in the 54th minute. But it wasn’t well disguised and referee Larsen saw right through the Bulgarian’s attempt to hoodwink him and handed him a yellow card for his effort.

CSKA had the ball in United’s net but Dzagoev’s effort was ruled offside.

Akinfeev finally got the opportunity to prove his quality when Nani met Neville’s low cross with a diving header. The 23-year-old Russian proved his agility to turn away the effort. It didn’t appear that Foster and Kuszczak were clapping the excellent stop on the Reds' bench!

It was all United, and after Antonio Valencia rattled Akinfeev’s crossbar, with eight minutes to go the Ecuadorian scored his first Champions League goal for United when he ghosted onto Berbatov’s flick-header four minutes from time to blast in a far-post shot.

Had Akinfeev managed to stop that one he might have rubber-stamped a passport to Old Trafford in the future.

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