Show the magic

"Ronaldo is by far the best player in the world at the moment. Hopefully he can work some of his magic against Roma and get us into the semi finals."
- Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are often spoken of in the same breath at Old Trafford, but the Englishman says his Portuguse team-mate is the one who can conjure the magic to fire United into the Champions League semi finals.

United take on Roma at Old Trafford on Tuesday and, thanks to Rooney’s sublime intervention after an hour at Stadio Olimpico a week ago, the Reds are well placed with an away goal despite being 2-1 down in the tie.

Rooney and Ronaldo were part of the United side that lost to AC Milan two years ago in a game that was seen as a watershed in their development on the European stage. Now Rooney says the pair are more mature and ready to lead the Reds into the last four of the competition.

“Against AC Milan a few years ago, myself, Cristiano and a few of the other players were still quite young,” says the 21-year-old striker. “Playing against the likes of Maldini and Nesta gives you a platform to learn from.

“Since then we’ve both improved as players. We’ve matured a lot. Cristiano is winning games on his own this season, he’s been unbelievable. At the moment he is by far the best player in the world, and hopefully he can work some of his magic against Roma and get us into the semi finals.”

It is typical of Rooney to play down his own importance, but his goal could be the telling turn in the tale of the battle against Roma. Down to ten men following Paul Scholes’ sending off for a series of late fouls, Rooney calmly chested down Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s cross before lashing the ball home on the volley. The goal could prove vital.

“I hope it can,” he says. “I’ll tell you after the game. But it’s going to be a difficult match. After going down to ten men in Rome, we had to try and stay in the tie. So, to get the away goal was important for us, hopefully we can make it count.”

As if he needed reminded, it was his first goal in the Champions League proper since scoring that sensational hat-trick against Fenerbahce on his United debut in September 2004.

“I’ve had chances,” he freely admits. “There have been times when I should have scored and times where the keeper has made a good save. It was really good to get the goal because there was a lot of talk about me not scoring for a while in the Champions League. Hopefully now that will stop and I can concentrate on trying to get more goals in Europe.”

Rooney is all too aware that, in the absence of United’s main striker Louis Saha through injury, he can ill afford to go on a similar run before he finds the net in Europe again.

“We’ll have to take our chances,” he adds. “We need a good performance because Roma are a good team and they pass the ball really well. At times it’s difficult to get the ball back off them, so we have to be ready and focused. In the quarter finals of the Champions League you’re not going to play badly and go through. But, with the players and the speed we have got, especially at Old Trafford, we know we can cause Roma problems.

“It’s also important that the reaction from the weekend is positive. We have to go into the game and play the way we have played all season. We’ve played well all season and we don’t want to let ourselves down now by losing one game and going out of the tournament. We want to go further in the competition.”

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