UNITED LEAVE IT LATE IN MOSCOW

WHEN Manchester United last travelled to Moscow, in May 2008, it was destined to provide the club with their third European Cup triumph.

This trip was always going to be considerably less significant as it was clear Sir Alex Ferguson had Sunday's showdown with Liverpool at the back of his mind with a number of his players not even making the long trip to Russia to face CSKA Moscow.

Nonetheless, Antonio Valencia popped up with a late winner to maintain United's 100 per cent record and take them a massive step closer to clinching a place in the knockout stages.

Rather than the attacking verve which has been a feature of Ferguson's successful tenure, the Scot selected John O'Shea in midfield and left Dimitar Berbatov to cut a lonely figure in attack with Michael Owen kicking his heels on the bench.

Fabio made the most of his start at left back by emerging as United's brightest performer during the open exchanges but there was precious little in way of excitement in the first period.

Anderson's shot from a free kick was barely worthy of the name and easy for Igor Akinfeev, although the keeper looked rather less secure when dealing with Paul Scholes's straightforward attempt from long range, the CSKA skipper unconvincingly flipping it over the bar.

Milos Krasic beat Fabio to fire one shot across goal, which Edwin van der Sar sensibly allowed to drift wide, but the fact that the best effort of the first half was a left-footed shot from Gary Neville that arrowed inches off target says it all.

Nani was at his infuriating worst for much of the game, producing some eye-catching approach work only to hit his crosses straight to Akinfeev or wastefully towards the near post.

The game briefly threatened to burst into life when Dimitar Berbatov appeared to make the most of Alexei Berezutsky's mistimed tackle inside the box and earned only a yellow card for simulation. Seconds later, Alan Dzagoev had a goal ruled out for offside at the other end.

With Rio Ferdinand withdrawn as a precaution, the Liverpool clash continued to play on United's mind but they almost broke through when Neville's right-wing cross was met by Nani's diving header and Akinfeev showed why he is so highly regarded with a stunning one-handed save.

Akinfeev was out smartly to thwart Nani and the introduction of Owen at Scholes's expense finally suggested Ferguson wanted to attack a home team that was clearly lacking ideas of how to break down a well-drilled defence.

Although Owen fluffed his lines, miskicking on one occasion inside the box, the visitors responded well to having an extra man in attack and Valencia played a couple of one-twos with Nani before unleashing an explosive drive that cannoned off the bar with Akinfeev beaten all ends up.

With eight minutes left, that looked like the closest last year's runners-up would come to winning this tie but the former Wigan winger was on hand to steal victory with four minutes remaining.

The pressure was building and Nani, finally picking out a team-mate with one of his crosses, allowed Berbatov to head on for Valencia to drill home a right-footed finish from inside the box. United only had 10 men at the time because Fabio, described as "outstanding" by his manager, was down injured as the exciting prospect continues to show a worrying inability to finish first-team games.

Anderson should have put the gloss on the win in the closing stages but shot wastefully wide after a lovely backheel from Berbatov left him with only Akinfeev to beat.

It was a case of job done on the plastic pitch and an awkward fixture successfully negotiated while the likes of Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra, Darren Fletcher, Ryan Giggs and co can concentrate on getting fit for Anfield.

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