CL: United 7 (1) - 1 (2) Roma - agg 8 - 3
Carrick (11, 60) ; Smith (17) ; Rooney (19); Ronaldo (44, 49); Evra 81 / de Rossi 69
Sky : Manchester United produced an astonishing performance to thrash Roma 7-1 at Old Trafford to advance to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League 8-3 on aggregate.
Evoking memories of famous European nights gone by, United overturned a 2-1 first-leg deficit in emphatic fashion to set up a last four meeting with either Bayern Munich or Milan.
Michael Carrick, Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney all scored inside the opening 20 minutes before Cristiano Ronaldo added a fourth goal before half-time.
Ronaldo and Carrick scored again before the hour, and though Daniele De Rossi denied United a clean sheet, Patrice Evra concluded the rout with a seventh goal in the closing 10 minutes.
Roma were busy in possession in the early minutes, seemingly unaffected by the late inclusion of last week’s match-winner Mirko Vucinic for the ill Rodrigo Taddei.
David Pizarro - in for the suspended Simone Perrotta - drove wide from distance, while Francesco Totti was much closer with a fizzing 25-yard effort.
But just as the Italians were looking slick on the ball, United rocked their opponents with a three-goal blast in the space of seven minutes.
First to score was Carrick, who collected a ball in-field from Ronaldo and curled a shot past the leaden-footed Doni, with the Roma keeper strangely making no effort to save the shot.
On 17 minutes the second goal arrived as United swept the length of the pitch as Wes Brown, Rooney, Carrick and Gabriel Heinze combined for Ryan Giggs to slip in Smith, who vindicated his selection ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer by steering his shot past an exposed Doni.
Just two minutes later and it was 3-0 as Ronaldo and Smith linked up to release Giggs down the right and his low cross was turned in via the post by Rooney.
Roma’s response was for De Rossi to head Pizarro’s free-kick just past the upright, but United scented further goals.
Ronaldo lashed a left-footed shot wide after cutting in from the flank and Doni then had to quickly change direction to stop the Portuguese’s deflected free-kick.
Doni was then alert to block Carrick’s near-post header from Giggs’ corner, with the midfielder unable to snaffle up the rebound.
The reprieve for Roma was momentary, though, as another incisive pass from Giggs presented Ronaldo with space to run into and he sprinted to the edge of the box before drilling a low shot inside the post.
Edwin van der Sar, at fault for Roma’s second goal last week, was then called into action just before the break as he beat away a thunderous Totti free-kick.
The second half started with Totti flashing a free-kick wide before United grabbed a fifth after Roma failed to clear a corner after Rooney’s initial shot was tipped over by Doni.
Rooney was the one to feed Giggs on the left and the Welshman’s low cross found its way to the far post where Ronaldo lunged for his second of the game.
Roma, looking for some sort of consolation from a miserable night, almost found some, but Darren Fletcher was ably protecting the back post to stop Alessandro Mancini’s header on the line.
On the hour mark, United rattled in a sixth goal as Carrick arrowed a 25-yard drive into the top corner after Heinze had kept alive Ronaldo’s over-hit cross.
The magnificent Giggs was given a breather for the final half-hour, with his replacement - Solskjaer - lofting a shot onto the roof of the net after Smith had done the same moments earlier.
Roma contributed their own entry to the fine array of goals when De Rossi steered a cushioned volley inside the post from Totti’s right-wing cross on 69 minutes.
The final 20 minutes were passing idly by until United plundered a seventh goal on 81 minutes as Evra started, and finished, a neat move involving Rooney and Solskjaer by dragging a low shot in off the post.
Sniffing a hat-trick, Ronaldo foraged forward in injury-time, only to see his low shot saved by Doni before the final whistle blew to keep the Premiership leaders in with a chance of emulating 1999’s Treble-winning campaign.
TEAM
United: Van der Sar; O’Shea (Evra 52); Heinze; Brown; Ferdinand; Carrick (Richardson 73); Fletcher; Ronaldo; Giggs (Solskjaer 61); Rooney; Smith
Subs: Kuszczak; Eagles; Cathcart ; Fangzhuo.
POST SCRIPT
Sir Alex: “It was a fantastic performance. The speed of our play and our penetration was absolutely superb. That’s absolutely the best night of European football we’ve had here. We never expected to win 7-1 but the quality of our game was so high.
“The fact that three English teams are in the semis probably makes our league the best in Europe. Six or seven years ago Spanish football was the best. But on the evidence of this season Barcelona and Real Madrid are not as near to where they were in previous years, while the competitive nature and the quality of the English game has improved over the seasons.
“Every player is very confident, they have a lot of belief in themselves. Everyone still believed we would get through tonight, but it is an unbelievable result. To win 7-1 against Roma in a quarter-final is just great. It is amazing for the players and the club, but now we need to think about the semi-final.
“I really have no preference who we get now.”
Luciano Spalletti : “It’s difficult to explain what happened, especially because the team played well in the first 10 minutes. Then the first time they attacked, they scored. We failed to respond to their enthusiasm and our inexperience cost us dearly against their counter-attacks.”
