Valencia rescues United

12 April 2012

Antonio Valencia scored a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser for Manchester United at Old Trafford to secure their place in the last 16 of the Champions League after a 3-3 draw with CSKA Moscow.

The winger scored the winner in Russia and his effort this time around capped a rousing fightback by Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

Michael Owen and Paul Scholes were also on target after CSKA Moscow squandered a two-goal advantage.

Within the opening 30 seconds Alan Dzagoev had fired over for the visitors after striding through a static United defence and only two minutes were on the clock when Deividas Semberas flashed a shot wide.

After United came pack into the game with Valencia at the heart of most, there was a sense of bewilderment therefore when the opening goal ended up in the home net.

Evgeni Aldonin floated a cross towards target man Tomas Necid, who chested it first-time to Alan Dzagoev, who found himself with only Jonny Evans to run at and he lashed a shot into the far corner from an acute angle which Edwin Van der Sar barely reacted to as it whizzed past.

Owen drilled home a typical poacher's effort in response but parity lasted one minute as Milos Krasic galloped into the box unchallenged, collected Necid's pass, skipped past Van der Sar and, after a neat pivot, tapped into an empty net.

If Ferguson had called for more solidity at half-time, the words fell on deaf ears as within two minutes of the restart, Dzagoev had floated a free-kick to the far post where Vasili Berezutski nodded home.

The home cause was not helped when Darren Fletcher was denied a certain penalty when he was chopped down by Berezutski, the irritation only compounded when the Scot was booked for diving.

Macheda's header struck a post in reply for United before Scholes gave them hope when he converted Gary Neville's cross and Valencia then earned a draw when his late strike deflected in off Georgi Shchennikov.

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