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VIEW MATCH REPORT

Thursday 14 Sep 2006
Man Utd 3-2 Celtic
Two from Saha and one for Solskjaar clinch a win for United

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was Manchester United's Champions League hero with the winner in a 3-2 home victory over Celtic.

Solskjaer, whose late strike gave United victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in the Nou Camp seven years ago, popped up in the 47th minute to put the home side ahead for the second time.

With Old Trafford having witnessed four goals in a topsy-turvy first half to this Group F encounter, both sets of fans must have been expecting more after Solskjaer's effort.

But despite United enjoying several more attempts, the Norwegian proved to be the matchwinner in this first competitive meeting between the two great British clubs.

Celtic went in front when a long high clearance from goalkeeper Artur Boruc was miscontrolled by Rio Ferdinand on 21 minutes, allowing Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink to race away and then score with a low cross shot.

But Boruc was then harshly adjudged to have felled Ryan Giggs in the box and Louis Saha equalised from the resulting penalty on 30 minutes, despite the Pole getting a hand to the Frenchman's shot.

Giggs limped off injured, with Solskjaer introduced. And soon after, Paul Scholes threaded a pass through the Bhoys backline for Saha to toe-poke under the body of Boruc on 40 minutes and produce a turnaround.

But within two minutes, Shunsuke Nakamura had dispatched a beautiful 20-yard free-kick past Edwin van der Sar to tie the scores up once again.

However, shortly after the break, Thomas Gravesen gave the ball away in midfield and United quickly came forward. Scholes released Saha and although Boruc saved, the ball broke loose for Solskjaer to net from close range.

Saha and the returning Wayne Rooney threatened to run riot but Boruc was somehow able to thwart the United strikers.

There were few scares for the home side at the other end in the second half, and the Red Devils ended the night top of the group after Benfica could only draw 0-0 at FC Copenhagen.

Afterwards Celtic boss Gordon Strachan said: "We thought we could get them on the counter-attack but the biggest problem of the night was, we gave ourselves the problem with unnecessary bad passing.

"We're going to wake up tomorrow and think, 'Well, if we had only.' And that's a horrible thing, regrets, and individual players are going to have to deal with that.

"Our passing wasn't good and no matter what system you've got, if you don't pass the ball well, no system is going to work."

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson also had cause to lament player error with Rio Ferdinand missing the ball before Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink scored the opener for Celtic.

Ferguson said: "Celtic had a go all night which is typical of the history of that club but in fairness to our lads, some of our attacking play was really good and we could have had more goals."