Oliver Kay
‘BY THE end, it was comfortable, so much so that even Diego Forlán had scored for the first time in 27 matches for Manchester United, but this result is unlikely to have instilled too much fear in the hearts of Real Madrid, nor indeed Arsenal. Sir Alex Ferguson’s team suffered the worst possible start to their European campaign, allowing the Champions League novices of Maccabi Haifa to take an improbable early lead, before they shook themselves out of their early-season torpor, their spirited response capped in the 89th minute by a penalty from the hitherto hapless Forlán.
The Uruguay forward’s goal, his first since a £7.5 million move from Independiente in January, was greeted with a patronising blend of ecstasy and relief, but the greater solace should be taken from the fact that United, having made such an awful start, were by then in a position to engage in such a charitable act.
"I would have been hated by 63,000 [didn’t he say 67,000 somewhere else?] people if I had taken the penalty myself, so I gave it to Diego," David Beckham said of his gesture. Debatable, but, more than likely, he would have been stripped of the vice-captaincy had Forlán been entrusted in more pressured circumstances.’