VIEW FROM THE PRESBOX

There will be some who are unplacated by a routine victory over mediocre Hungarian opposition, but only the most severely disenfranchised supporter could fail to share the new owners’ wide-eyed excitement at the performances of Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

If this was Rooney and Ronaldo limbering up for the new season, the rest of Europe, never mind the Barclays Premiership, had better beware. At 19 and 20 respectively, their vast potential is a long way from fulfilment, but there were signs last night, as they scored either side of a welcome strike for a seemingly reinvigorated Ruud van Nistelrooy, that the two youngsters can lead United’s chase for honours even if Sir Alex Ferguson fails to address the shortcomings in his squad before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.

It was a display that showed that Ferguson’s much-criticised 4-3-3 formation can succeed, provided that the personnel is right and that a high tempo can be maintained as it was throughout last night. As ever, though, he demanded more, particularly with regard to goalscoring, with the three front players urged to score at least 30 more goals than the disappointing total of 42 they managed between them in all competitions last season, when Van Nistelrooy was variously out of action, out of condition and out of sorts.

Certainly they started as if they meant business, with United’s season less than seven minutes old when Rooney’s goal brought the Glazers to their feet. A clever touch from Ronaldo found Rooney deep in Debrecen territory and, although his attempted pass to Van Nistelrooy was intercepted by Balazs Nikolov, the ball bounced off Csaba Szatmári and back into the path of Rooney, who instinctively drove a right-foot shot into the bottom corner of the net, prompting enthusiastic applause among the Americans in the directors’ box.

Next it was Ronaldo’s turn to show. There were, as ever, a series of beguiling runs, but there was also evidence of a new-found ruthless streak. Some of the high-stepping runs and elaborate flicks recalled the callow 18-year-old who waltzed his way into Old Trafford two years ago, but these days his tricks are seldom for tricks’ sake, as he showed midway through the first half, clipping a pass into Paul Scholes’s path, running on to the return, beating Laszlo Éger with a trademark step-over and hitting a shot that Norbert Csernyánszki managed to turn just past the post.

It was Rooney, though, who created the two second-half goals that seemed to end the tie as a contest. United had suffered a scare when Zsombor Kerekes found the net within seconds of the restart, albeit after a blatant push on Gary Neville, but their nerves were calmed four minutes later when Rooney dodged the challenge of Dragan Vukmir with a neat body swerve and delivered a measured pass from which Van Nistelrooy never looked like missing, a worrying sign for defenders who may have dared to think they had seen the best of the Dutchman.