Manchester United 1-0 CSKA Moscow: Five talking points

Manchester United surged to the top of the table in Group B with a 1-0 victory over CSKA Moscow. A 79th minute winner from United skipper Wayne Rooney was enough to give the Red Devils all three points and their first ever home win against Russian opposition.The game which was bereft of much end-to-end action was brought into life in the latter stages as Jesse Lingard began to stamp his mark on the proceedings. It was in fact, his perfectly weighted ball across penalty box that eventually helped the Devils break the deadlock.Here are the five biggest talking points from the game on another European night at Old Trafford.

#1 Not a game for the neutrals

If you were not a fan, of either of the teams, you might have made a wise decision to stay away from the game. The match quickly settled into a training ground drill from the get go as CSKA seemed content to hit Manchester United only on the break and play for the draw most of the night.

This one lacked the offering of any of the footballing superlatives that we normally associate with the Champions League and Manchester United. It was an eerie night, where even the Old Trafford faithful were forced to jeer some of the minutes of play from their home team. The home team stuck to their footballing philosophies of slowly building up play from the back and that made for quite a dull viewing for most of the night.

The game was filled with misplaced passes, laboured switch of play and over hit crosses from the home side. That was complemented with abrupt, impromptu and totally disorganized counter-attacks from the visitors. All this combined to give us a match that certainly was not worthy of being remembered alongside the many memorable European nights we have come to witness in the past at the “theatre of dreams”.