United hang on to edge Wolfsburg for first Champions League win

MANCHESTER, England 

Juan Mata and Chris Smalling were stars of the show as Manchester United got off the mark in the UEFA Champions League with a narrow 2-1 win over Wolfsburg on Wednesday night.

"We started off sloppy and with that goal you give yourself a big battle to get back into the game," Smalling said. "But after that we created a lot of chances and I think it was a deserved victory."

It has been a miserable week — again — for the Premier League in the Champions League, but Manchester United offered at least some solace. Although it fell behind after four minutes to Wolfsburg, it came back with a performance of great self-belief and attacking intent and probably should have won more comfortably than it ultimately did.

For over a year United has been waiting for the magical moment at which Louis van Gaal’s methods are assimilated. History suggests that when his ideas are understood there is one game on which everything clicks, the scales fall from players eyes, and the patterns of play he demands become a basis for improvisation rather than something restrictive. That hasn’t really come for United — and there were anxious moments late on here — but after four straight wins, there is far more attacking swagger about United than there was in those inhibited early weeks of the season.

Part of that, of course, is to do with the signing of Anthony Martial, whose arrival has done to United what the lightning bolt did to Frankenstein’s monster. United suddenly is alive, attacking with menace, reveling in having a quick mobile striker who can finish and also has the muscularity to chase lost causes. If Wayne Rooney, restored to the attacking midfield role in which he has always seemed most comfortable, can find his form United night become not merely a challenger for the Premier League title but the favorite. Juan Mata, certainly, looks a better player with Martial before him.

Yet it all began so badly. Wolfsburg went ahead with a goal that made a mockery of United’s fine domestic defensive record. First Daniel Caligiuri was allowed to retain the possession on the Wolfsburg left despite the presence of three United players. He worked it inside to Bas Dost and, played onside by Antonio Valencia, was ideally placed to receive the through-ball that came from Max Kruse as Dost pushed it inside, and then to dink it over David De Gea.

It became the ninth club to score in the first four minutes against United; only one of the previous eight had gone on to win. United, stung, poured forward, producing what was arguably its most impressive first half — from an attacking point of view — of the season. Mata had a shot headed clear by Dante, Martial fizzed an effort just over the angle of post and bar, Memphis Depay, arriving on a Mata delivery, headed straight at Diego Benaglio.

But the best chance fell to Rooney. Mata’s backheel as United broke gave Rooney space to sweep a ball out to Martial tearing down the right. He cut inside, beating Ricardo Rodriguez and, when he pulled the ball back, Rooney seemed to have a tap-in. Some how, though he miskicked the ball over the bar — a staggering miss.

Even in this week of Premier League haplessness, the pressure had to tell eventually and it did 12 minutes before half-time as Mata’s cross was blocked by the outstretched arm of Caligiuri. The Spaniard arced the penalty convincingly into the corner.

"The manager made a list of penalty takers and I am the first right now, so I have confidence," Mata said.

Mata, reveling in the space Martial’s runs created for him, was the central creative force. A reverse pass laid in Depay before halftime but, after a neat turn, his shot was saved by the legs of Benaglio. It was Mata, though, who created United’s second, producing an outrageous backheel flick as Bastian Schweinsteiger’s mis-hit shot bounced to him just outside the box. Smalling ran on and, at full stretch, squeezed his shot just inside the post. Mata has now directly contributed, whether by scoring or setting up, eight goals in his past seven appearances.

The disappointment then for United was that it did not go on to kill the game, either with a third goal or simply by retaining possession to take the sting from the game. To say United was clinging on by the end would be an exaggeration, but there were rather more anxious moments than there probably should have been. Caligiuri had a low shot saved by De Gea, the substitute Andre Schurrle twisted by Daley Blind before sending a shot across the face of goal and just wide and Rodriguez whipped a free-kick just wide.

"A lot of players are very tired because of the (accumulation) of a lot of matches," Van Gaal said. "But we have to keep the ball better in the second half because that was our problem."

United, though, held on, and may even take heart from the resilience it showed in the face of the Wolfsburg surge. With CSKA beating PSV Eindhoven in the other game in Group B, all four teams are locked on three points. That’s a far healthier situation than two weeks ago, but perhaps the most encouraging aspect for United was the performance and the increasing attacking fluency.

Information from FOXSoccer.com's newswire services contributed to this report.