Man Utd eye last 16 after Bursaspor rout

BURSA — Manchester United virtually assured themselves of a place in the Champions League knockout rounds here Tuesday with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Turkish side Bursaspor.Second half goals from Scottish midfielder Darren Fletcher, Gabriel Obertan and Bebe sealed victory for United, who now lead Group C by three points from Valencia with two games remaining.Fletcher put United on course for the win after rifling a low finish past Dimitar Ivankov in the 48th minute at the Bursa Ataturk Stadium.Obertan then doubled the lead with a superb second on 73 minutes, latching on to a pass from Park Ji-Sung near the edge of the area before thundering an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.Four minutes later new Portuguese signing Bebe bagged his second goal for the club in the space of a week, poking the ball past Ivankov after an exquisite reverse pass by the evergreen Paul Scholes.While the victory puts United on the brink of qualification, needing only a point from Rangers in their next match to go through, the defeat condemned Bursaspor to a first round exit.The Turks, playing in the tournament for the first time, are on course to be the worst performing side in Champions League history, still goal-less and pointless after four matches.United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said Fletcher's goal early in the second half had proved decisive."From that point on we were basically in control of the match," Ferguson told Sky Sports. "They had a couple of half chances and you can never be sure. But the second goal killed the match."Ferguson also lavished praise on goalscorer Obertan, the young French striker signed in 2009."He's developing very well and getting much stronger now. He's a real good talent. His goal tonight showed that -- fantastic strike," Ferguson said.Fletcher meanwhile said United would now seek to wrap up qualification as quickly as possible."We're in a great position now with two games to go -- the quicker you qualify the better so we'll try to do that," Fletcher said."We felt that if we could

Add comment

Nick
Content

Submit