VIEW FROM THE PRESSBOX

Manchester United flew home with a priceless Champions League lead and left behind a storm of controversy over incidents that included furious Lille coaching staff attempting to haul their players off the pitch before the final whistle.

Lille's goalkeeper, Tony Sylva, was lining up his wall when Ryan Giggs calmly stroked a free-kick into the top corner seven minutes from time. The home players raced to the Dutch referee Eric Braamhaar, unable to comprehend how he had allowed the goal to stand, but he was not for turning and his obduracy triggered a stunning reaction from the home bench, with the signal going out for the Lille players to head for the touchline and end the game.

Sanity prevailed and the contest continued, allowing United to claim victory from a game which, until those bizarre last few minutes, had seemed set to be remembered for a chilling security scare inside the visitors' end, where fans appeared to be crushed in front of a 10-foot barrier. No one was injured, although that was hardly a credit to the actions of riot police, who fired tear gas into the enclosure.

The disturbance behind Edwin van der Sar's goal as the security problem was unfolding took attention away from an awful game. It was 42 minutes before either side mustered a shot on goal, a half-chance created by the willingness of Wayne Rooney and Henrik Larsson to press the ball deep inside the Lille area. Ronaldo was on to the opportunity in an instant but, with Lille defenders flying on to the scene, the Portugal international could do no more than fire at Sylva, who blocked with his body.

Lille responded almost immediately as Mathieu Bodmer drilled a 20-yard shot wide after Nicolas Fauvergue had extravagantly chested the ball into his path.

The aggressiveness that United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, had highlighted in Lille's play from two dreadfully disappointing encounters last year had not disappeared, with Ronaldo increasingly agitated at the robust manner in which his skills were being blunted.

Thankfully the action improved markedly after the interval and the Portuguese ought to have been first to benefit from a much more open affair when he sped past Grégory Tafforeau into the Lille area. The winger may have 15 Premiership goals this season but he has yet to score for United in 23 appearances in this competition and he was unable to break his duck as he blasted against Sylva.

Lille thought they had scored after 62 minutes when Peter Odemwingie, their Nigerian striker, rose above Nemanja Vidic, the United centre-half, to glance home Ludovic Obraniak's cross. But Braamhaar came to United's rescue, ruling out the goal for a push on Vidic by the forward.

Johan Audel was unable to turn Matthieu Chalmé's near-post cross goalwards as he slid in ahead of Vidic, then Giggs's attempted lob never looked like dropping in after Scholes had lifted a pass beyond the Lille defence.

The Wales international soon found his range, however, and in so doing unleashed a storm of controversy which had Braamhaar facing a barrage of abuse as he left the field.

The Telegraph

Manchester United took one step towards the quarter-finals of the Champions League last night, but Lille took a step back to the dark ages. Not only were United's fans disgracefully treated by French stewards and police, who responded recklessly to a crushing situation with tear-gas, but Lille's players also shamed themselves, staging a brief walkout in protest at Ryan Giggs' quickly taken free-kick goal.

The Louvre are moving some of their masterpieces from Paris to a new gallery around the corner from the Stade Felix-Bollaert, but Lille's European home boasted scenes by Hieronymus Bosch yesterday, starting with the crowd congestion clearly growing before kick-off.

Stadium staff were far too slow to realise what was happening in a stand which had too many fans funnelling into one area, and not spreading to the far side where many seats were available. With some United supporters forced up against a fence, others screamed for a gate to be open. One managed to climb over and open the gate, at which point the riot police sprayed tear-gas into the throng. Madness.

Like the toxic cloud that hung in the air, controversy swirled around the Felix-Bolleart all evening, most notably when Giggs struck in the second half. Having conceded a free kick 25 yards out, the French were slow to man the barricades, and their lack of concentration cost them dear.

Giggs asked the referee, Eric Braamhaar, whether he could take the free kick promptly. The Dutchman nodded, and Giggs curled the ball over the half-built wall into the corner untended by Tony Sylva, Lille's goalkeeper who was playing architect and foreman in constructing the human barrier.

Sylva lost it, remonstrating vehemently with Braamhaar that neither he, nor his colleagues, heard any whistle. Frustration and anger coursed through Lille veins, removing any sense of self-restraint. Moments after the restart, Lille's captain, Gregory Tafforeau, walked off the pitch, and some of his colleagues followed, encouraged by a member of the coaching staff.

Embarrassment mixed with farce in a disgraceful situation that stands as an affront to European football. Even the mere threat of a walkout was bad enough, but the sight of Tafforeau and some of his colleagues marching towards the dugout was a stain on Lille's name.

Some of coach Claude Puel's players froze, unwilling to withdraw their labour. Gary Neville tried to intervene, an act which incensed Sir Alex Ferguson. United's manager ordered his captain to keep away from Lille's flirtation with oblivion, and heated words were briefly exchanged. The Ferguson-Neville spat was merely a sideshow to the drama of Lille's walkout. Fortunately, sanity prevailed, and Puel's players resumed hostilities, but such is their simmering resentment at perceived injustice, the atmosphere will hardly be cordial in the second leg. Ferguson and Puel clearly do not get on either. Lille may well have been punished by Uefa by then.

Comforted by Giggs' away goal, Ferguson's side will surely progress to the last eight, yet they had to endure some alarming moments with their defence far from convincing in the teeth of a storm whipped up by Lille. A tense evening, on and off the field, had begun in worrying fashion for United with Nicolas Fauvergue heading wide and then following through nastily on Neville, setting the tone for a night of spite.

The Times

A game that was lacking in drama on the field exploded off it as Manchester United inched closer to their first Champions League quarter-final in four years with a controversial victory over Lille at the Félix-Bollaert Stadium last night.

United had looked more like losing than winning until events swung in their favour in the 84th minute when Ryan Giggs scored with a quickly taken free kick. But it was the reaction the goal drew from the home team which ensured that a remarkable game ended as it started, in controversy that is certain to have the disciplinary unit at Uefa, European football's governing body, working hard today.

Wayne Rooney put the ball down 25 yards out after Lille had conceded a foul, and with Tony Sylva, the goalkeeper, still trying to organise his wall, Giggs floated his free kick into the opposite corner.

As television replays showed, Giggs had clearly asked Eric Braamhaar, the referee, if he could take the free kick quickly, but when the Dutch official signalled for a goal, the decision sparked fury among the home team, so much so that Jean-Noël Dusé, the Lille goalkeeping coach, tried to get their players to walk off the pitch in protest.

The incidents were such that the result was almost redundant, but, as it stands, United will have every confidence of progressing when Lille visit Old Trafford in a fortnight.

United sailed close to the wind on too many occasions. They had enough chances to win the game more comfortably, particularly through Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney, who have not scored in 38 Champions League games between them, but Lille had plenty of chances of their own.

United's circumstances going into the game could not have been more different than they were the last time they faced Lille on that chastening evening at the Stade de France in Paris 15 months ago when, struggling for form, dogged by injury and plagued by the in-fighting that led to the departure of Roy Keane, they were beaten 1-0.

Mistaking concerns for their safety as attempts to invade the pitch or cause trouble, riot police began firing teargas which, unsurprisingly, prompted mayhem in the stands. Even Edwin van der Sar, the United goalkeeper, appeared affected by the gas and afterwards complained of suffering from double vision.

Braamhaar briefly seemed to consider calling a halt to the game, but when calm was restored after ten minutes, matters turned once again to football, of which there was little before the game became more expansive in a fraught second period.

United were having trouble keeping the ball, Ronaldo and Rooney, not for the first time in Europe, were struggling to get into the game, and Henrik Larsson was isolated up front, all of which imbued Lille, 125-1 outsiders to win the competition, with a growing sense of purpose.