VIEW FROM THE PRESS BOX
Juventus, an institution of proud achievement, were turned into record-book fodder by Manchester United. With a win that exploited the accident-prone Italian champions they have become the first side to reach the Champions League quarter-final for a seventh consecutive year.
Much as Sir Alex Ferguson admires Marcello Lippi, his opposite number in Turin, he will rejoice if this result does so much harm that there is no risk of a reunion later this season. Juventus may now struggle to escape the group.
United's recent excellence in the tournament is so fixed a procedure that it barely seems to matter who is in the line-up. The assurance with which the side began the night in Turin was also a sign of the relaxing circumstances of Group D for the visitors. Knowing that they could still cruise into the last eight even if they lost here made them all the harder to beat.
In the 15th minute, Gianluca Zambrotta, a right-footed midfielder who seemed a troubled left-back, took possession only to let Juan Sebastian Veron wrestle the ball from him and the Argentinian's cross picked out Giggs. There was a slight pause as he prepared to shoot, but the forward was painstaking rather than hesitant with his finishing.
Fragile as Juventus were in defence, there was a vein of ill-fortune and vexation that also wound through their performance. Just before United took the lead a deflected effort by Ciro Ferrara had come back off a post. David Trezeguet appealed heatedly for a penalty when John O'Shea and Roy Keane converged on him at the back post, but extensive space was not to suit the striker a little later. After 34 minutes, he was unmarked when meeting Mauro Camoranesi's cross, yet still headed against the bar. Camoranesi himself, put through by Marco Di Vaio soon after, had his drive blocked by Fabien Barthez.
Even so United were never beleaguered. A stamping challenge by Ferrara is believed to have torn Forlan's ankle ligaments and Sunday's Worthington Cup final is one of several matches that he will miss, but the team still enjoys great firepower. An agitated Zambrotta added to the menace, leaving the ball short when he tried to chest play back to his goalkeeper with 20 minutes gone but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could not nudge it beyond Gianluigi Buffon.
The Telegraph
In the stadium where Sir Alex Ferguson first realised he had a team capable of conquering Europe four years ago, he watched another contend for greatness last night. It was Ryan Giggs, so coveted by Serie A's clubs that he might well be playing here next year, who led the way for Manchester United with two first-half goals.
The second will be remembered for some time by the United fans who watched Giggs carve his way through the Juventus defence. United are the second team after AC Milan to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals with four wins from four matches and they are also the first side to beat Juventus in Turin in the competition since Oct 2000.
As for Keane, this could be the start of a new beginning. He previously played in defence against Chelsea last season in a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford. Ultimately, the Irishman might have to sacrifice his place in the midfield, not to mention his international career, for longevity.
He lasted a lot longer than Diego Forlan, the victim of a tackle from behind by Ciro Ferrera that saw the Uruguayan carted off on a stretcher with torn ankle ligaments. It had little effect on a United team given extra protection by Phil Neville in midfield and a creative pulse by Juan Sebastian Veron, who was back in Italy with United for the first time since he left Lazio in 2001.
The early pressure from the home side was dealt with by Keane, who announced his reign at the back with a perfectly-timed tackle on Marco Di Vaio after 14 minutes. By the time United scored their first goal through Giggs, on as a substitute for Forlan, the Irishman had won more balls in the air than Rio Ferdinand.
Zambrotta, one of five Juventus players returning after last week's game at Old Trafford, was still re-living his disaster when he tried to chest John O'Shea's cross back to Buffon on 20 minutes. Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer stole in between them and forced a good save out of the Juventus goalkeeper. They may have been under pressure, but United were counter-attacking with breathtaking precision.
O'Shea's crafty tackle on David Trezeguet on 21 minutes did not earn the Juventus striker a penalty but it was the first strike in a barrage of pressure. The France international hit the bar with a header after the half hour and, when Di Vaio was played in by Mauro Camorenesi on 37 minutes, Fabien Barthez did exceptionally well to block his low shot.
Then came two flashes of brilliance from United. First Giggs flicked the ball on to Nicky Butt whose shot was touched on to the post by Buffon. And then there was a moment that will have made every Arsenal fan shiver with a sense of deja-vu. Just as Patrick Vieira had given the ball away to Giggs for that exceptional FA Cup semi-final goal in 1999, so Bruno Conte ceded possession in midfield to the Welshman.
This time Giggs cut in towards the centre of the Juventus half and breezed past Ferrera and Paolo Montero with ease. Pivoting in the area he hit a slow, but precise, shot into the corner of Buffon's goal.
Solskjaer only just missed when he was put through on 57 minutes and his shot trickled wide of the post. But United's third goal was another act of calamity in the Juventus penalty area.
Solskjaer's cross was chested against the post by substitute Igor Tudor and Van Nistelrooy just had to touch the ball home from close range.
Van Nistelrooy now has 22 goals in 23 matches in the Champions League but he was almost upstaged by someone who has none. As Juventus wilted beyond belief, it was Gary Neville who clipped the home crossbar after United's third goal. It really was that easy.
The Times
THE talk in Italy yesterday was of Inter Milan attempting to "close a deal" for Ryan Giggs, but, however uncertain his long-term future remains, the only deal the Manchester United winger was interested in closing on a remarkable night in the Stadio Delle Alpi concerned his team's qualification for the European Cup quarter-finals.
It is somehow typical of Giggs's recent luck that even a glorious night such as this should come at a cost. Even if he is forced to miss the showdown with Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in his native Cardiff, though, last night showed him, United's supporters and, not least, the watching delegates from Inter that, even against one of the best defences in world football, he retains the ability to captivate an audience and devastate an opposing team.
Ferguson chose not to lavish his winger with too much praise — prompting conspiratorial glances from his audience, given strong rumours that Adriano, Parma's young Brazilian, has been earmarked as a possible replacement for Giggs at Old Trafford — but the United manager was entitled to hail this as a collective triumph.
Victory last night came at a price for United, though, with Forlán and John O'Shea joining Giggs in the treatment room ahead of Sunday's final. Forlán will definitely miss out, his ankle ligament injury in the opening minutes prompting Giggs's 40-minute cameo, but O'Shea and Giggs — like Mikaël Silvestre, Wes Brown and Paul Scholes, none of whom played any part last night — are more confident of recovering in time.
Injuries to Brown and Silvestre forced Ferguson to employ Roy Keane in the centre of defence, but, after what Ferguson admitted was an anxious opening, with Pavel Nedved twice going close for Juventus, United settled down to produce some mesmerising football on the counter-attack. One such move, in the fifteenth minute, ended with Giggs, set up by the excellent Juan Sebastián Verón, given time and space to beat Gianluigi Buffon from close range.
Gary Neville also hit the woodwork in the closing stages. It was that kind of night, but not even an ice pack on his thigh could take the glory from Giggs on an evening that may yet come to be known as one of his final hurrahs for United.
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