Champions League: Man Utd progress

This blog is dedicated to my pal Jason, who is the number 1 Manchester United fan.

Manchester United cruised into the group stage of Champions League by routing Hungarian champions Debrecen 3-0 (aggregate 6-0) last night.

However, United paid a heavy price as Gary Neville was stretchered off 10 minutes into the game. He is expected to be out for 5 weeks. This is worrying as United is trying to launch a good start into the Premiership.

The injury overshadowed a clinical display from the Red Devils, who continued their encouraging start to the campaign thanks to major contributions from an unlikely source - Gabriel Heinze.

Not only was he impressive in the defence, he managed to score 2 of the 3 United goals through two headers in either half of the match.

Substitute Kieren Richardson fired in United's 3rd goal 4 minutes after Heinze's second goal.

United's clinical display was further tempered when Richardson limped off with 20 minutes left, and United, who had used up all their substitutes finished with 10 men.

One more thing to note is that van der Sar has managed to keep 4 clean sheets in a row. That is a remarkable effort compared to how other United stoppers have fared in the previous seasons. I hope he'll continue his good performance to create a repeat of the '98 glory.